Soska.exe process is related to a malevolent program that can correctly be defined as a coin miner trojan. That malware form uses your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer pretty much unfunctional as a result of high CPU usage.
What is Soska.exe process?
Soska.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
As I have specified in the previous paragraph, Soska.exe is a coin miner trojan. The names of the executive file can be different, but the impacts are almost always the identical. Since coin miners focus on cryptocurrency mining, they utilize all available hardware power of your desktop to run this process. This virus doesn’t take note of the fact that you may want to make use of your device for other tasks – it will consistently use over 80% of your CPU power.
Soska.exe – Very high CPU/GPU usage
Besides CPU utilization, some of the coin miners also make use of GPU power for their tasks. In that situation, you will probably struggle even to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is usually used on 100%. It is not as critical as CPU for system work, so Soska.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and utilize all of it. It sometimes can cause unhappy consequences.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
Cryptocurrency mining term means the activity of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a integral part of anything based on the blockchain technology. Since this operation takes a lot of calculations, a very strong computer is needed. Exactly, the video card is better for this task, because they have more cores available. Cryptocurrency mining farms are usually constructed of dozens of GPUs to conduct their activity effectively. Such systems are not usable for “usual” purposes, like gaming or browsing the Web. Crooks who gain money via this coin miner use someones’ computers instead, even if they are used for the regular activity.2
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Soska.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
Initially, Soska.exe virus makes your computer overloaded. It is not able to run your applications now, as all CPU power is consumed by a virus. That malware does not care for your demands, all it pays attention to is generating income on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely struggle with incredibly sluggish performance. Pages can open for years, any kind of logins will take about a minute – just a horror story for a person that does a job online.
Soska.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Soska.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Unohostclr.exe, Jg6_6asg.exe, Menu.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Soska.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a solitary negative activity coin miners do to your computer. Soska.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your OS. To conduct all malicious functions properly, it wrecks the protection mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to avoid recognition. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a load of new entries – they are brought in by this trojan miner to connect your system to a malicious mining network. All these adjustments shall be reverted to the initial state in the process of system recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides slowing down your PC, performing at peak level for long times can trigger damage to your device and increase electricity costs. PC components are designed to easily get along with high load, but they are good with it only when they are in a good shape.
Compact and well-protected CPU cooling system is hard to broke. Meanwhile, graphic cards have large and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily cracked if touched while running, for example, by the user much earlier before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the extremely high load caused by Soska.exe can easily lead to GPU failure3. Graphic cards are also tend to have fast wearing when used for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely an unwanted situation when your GPU’s performance decreases on 20-30% just after 1-2 weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Soska.exe coin miner virus?
Coin miners are spread through different ways, but their main sources are malicious banners and programs from dubious sources
Coin miners are the most prevalent malevolent programs among “major” viruses. Adware frequently acts as a carrier for Soska.exe malware injection: it shows you the banners, which contain a link to malware downloading. Sure, this abstract “malware” can belong to any kind – yet another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. However, the statistics show that about 30% of all malware spread through the malevolent banners are coin miners – and Soska.exe is just among them.4
The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet
An additional way you could get this thing on your computer is by downloading it from the suspicious site as a part of a program. People that spread hacked variants of well-known programs (which do not demand the license key) have small chances to get paid. Therefore, there is a very big lure to include malware to the final package of the hacked app and acquire a coin for every setup. Prior to criticizing these people for hacking and also malware distribution, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid purchasing the program in this manner? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much bigger figure for antivirus program as well as new parts for your computer.
How to remove the Soska.exe miner from my PC?
The best way to get rid of this coin miner virus is to use anti-malware software
Removing such a virus demands using specific tool. Effective antivirus should have high efficiency at scanning and also be lightweight – in order to make no problems with utilization also on weak PCs. In addition, it is better to have proactive security in your security solution – to stop the virus even before it launches. Microsoft Defender lacks these elements for different reasons. That’s why I’d suggest you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that objective. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a great option that fits all of the discussed characteristics.5
Before the malware removal, it is important to boot your operating system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Soska.exe miner takes a lot of CPU capacity, it is needed to halt it before launching the security program. Otherwise, your scan will last for years, even though the GridinSoft program is pretty lightweight.
Booting the PC into Safe Mode with Networking
Press the Start button, then choose Power, and click on Reboot while holding the Shift key on the keyboard.
Windows will reboot into recovery mode. In that mode, choose Troubleshoot→ Startup Settings→ Safe Mode with Networking. Press the corresponding button on your keyboard to choose that option.
When your PC is in Safe Mode, all third-party apps, along with the majority of non-crucial operating system components, are not launched with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the computer without dealing with high CPU usage of the coin miner.
Remove Soska.exe coin miner virus with GridinSoft Anti-Malware
Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware. You can use this anti-malware program for free during its 6-day trial period. In that term, all functions are available, and it takes no payments to remove malware from your system.
After activating your free trial, start Full scan. It may last up to 10 minutes. You may use the PC as usual.
When the scan is finished, press the Clean Now button to remove all detected elements from your system. This procedure takes less than a minute.
Now, you are good to go. Reboot your PC into a normal Windows mode and use just as there was nothing malicious.
Remove Soska.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner
Name: Soska.exe
Description: The Soska.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This Soska.exe will create your CPU to go for very warm temperatures for prolonged periods of time, which could reduce the life of the CPU.
Operating System: Windows
Application Category: Trojan
User Review
( votes)References
- Read about why Monero and DarkCoin are so popular amongst cybercriminals.
- Detailed explanation of how does cryptomining work.
- About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.
- Read more about various malware type on Cybersecurity Glossary.
- Our review on GridinSoft Anti-Malware.
