Spacepop.exe Virus ⛏️ (Coin Miner Trojan) Removal

Spacepop.exe executable file belongs to a malicious application that can properly be recognized as a coin miner virus. That malware type uses your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your personal computer roughly nonfunctional as a result of high CPU usage.

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What is Spacepop.exe process?

Spacepop.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus

As I have actually specified in the introduction, Spacepop.exe is a coin miner trojan virus. The names of the .exe file may be different, however, the impacts are generally the identical. Considering that coin miners focus on cryptocurrency mining, they use all possible hardware power of your desktop to conduct this operation. This virus does not take note of the fact that you may want to make use of your system for other activities – it will always take over 80% of your CPU power.

Spacepop.exe Windows Process

Spacepop.exe – Really high CPU/GPU use

Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners also make use of GPU power for their operations. In that case, you will likely struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often used on 100%. It is not as essential as processor for system work, so Spacepop.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and utilize it all. It sometimes can result in sad consequences.

Shortly about cryptocurrency mining

Cryptocurrency mining means the action of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a basic part of anything based on the blockchain technology. Since this action takes a lot of calculations, a very strong computer is required. Exactly, the graphic card is better for this purpose, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms are usually constructed of dozens of video cards to conduct their activity effectively. Such computer systems are not usable for “usual” purposes, like gaming or web browsing. Fraudsters who gain money via this coin miner use someones’ PCs instead, even if they are used for the regular activity.

List of the typical coin miner symptoms

  • Your device overheats (system unit/laptop body is very hot)
  • You are not able to open your apps or they are opening for ages
  • Unknown process is running in the background and consumes your PC resources
  • Windows Defender does not respond
  • How dangerous is the Spacepop.exe miner?

    Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system

    Firstly, Spacepop.exe malware makes your computer overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, as all CPU power is used by a virus. That malware does not care for your needs, all it focuses on is making money on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely suffer from incredibly slow efficiency. Pages can open up for years, any sort of logins will take about a minute – just a horror story for a person that works online.

    Spacepop.exe Technical Summary.

    File NameSpacepop.exe
    TypeTrojan Coin Miner
    Detection NameTrojan:Win32/CoinMiner
    Distribution MethodSoftware bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc.
    Similar behaviorMusallat.exe, Manualfinderapp.virus/, Pdfskills_updater.exe
    RemovalDownload and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Spacepop.exe removal.

    “Visible” damage is not a solitary unpleasant activity coin miners perform to your computer. Spacepop.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your OS. To carry out all malicious functions correctly, it ruins the protection components of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to prevent detection. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a load of new notes – they are added by this trojan miner to connect your computer to a malicious mining network. All these changes are about to be gone back to the initial state in the process of system recovery.

    Hardware effects of coin miner activity

    Besides making your computer slow, running at peak power for a long period of time can trigger damage to your device and raise power costs. PC elements are designed to easily deal with high load, but they can do so only when they are in a good shape.

    Compact and well-protected processor cooling system is quite hard to broke. Meanwhile, graphic cards have big and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily broke if touched while working, for instance, by the user much before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the extremely high load caused by Spacepop.exe virus can easily lead to graphic card failure. GPUs are also tend to have very fast wearing when utilized for crypto mining. It is surely an unwanted case when the performance of your GPU decreases on 20-30% just after several weeks of being exploited in such a way.

    How did I get Spacepop.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 common malevolent programs among “severe” viruses. Adware sometimes works as a carrier for Spacepop.exe malware injection: it shows you the banners, which contain a link to malware downloading. Sure, this abstract “malware” may belong to any kind – another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. However, the statistics say that approximately 30% of all malware spread with the malevolent banners are coin miners – and Spacepop.exe is just one of them.

    Unwanted banners adware

    The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet

    An additional way you could get this item on your PC is by downloading it from the dubious website as a part of a program. Users that spread hacked versions of popular programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to get paid. Hence, there is a huge temptation to add malware to the final package of the hacked app and receive a coin for every installation. Before criticizing these guys for hacking and malware spreading, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid buying the program in this manner? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much greater figure for antivirus software and new parts for your computer.

    How to remove the Spacepop.exe miner from my PC?

    The best way to get rid of this coin miner virus is to use anti-malware software

    Eliminating such a virus demands using special software. Proper antivirus must have high efficiency at scanning and also be lightweight – in order to make no problems with usage also on weak systems. On top of that, it is recommended to have proactive security in your security solution – to halt the virus even before it launches. Microsoft Defender does not have these features for various factors. 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 each of the mentioned features.2

    Prior to the malware removal, it is important to boot your operating system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Spacepop.exe miner takes a lot of processor capacity, it is required to stop 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.

    Boot into Windows Safe Mode

    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.

    windows safe mode boot option with command prompt

    When your computer is in Safe Mode, all third-party applications, along with the majority of non-critical system components, are not started with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the PC without dealing with high processor usage of the coin miner.

    Remove Spacepop.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.

    GridinSoft Anti-Malware free trial

    After activating your free trial, start Full scan. It may last up to 10 minutes. You may use the PC as usual.

    Scanning for Spacepop.exe

    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.

    GridinSoft Anti-Malware after the scan Spacepop.exe process

    Now, you are good to go. Reboot your PC into a normal Windows mode and use just as there was nothing malicious.

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    References

    1. Read about why Monero and DarkCoin are so popular amongst cybercriminals.
    2. Our review on GridinSoft Anti-Malware.

    About the author

    Robert Bailey

    I'm Robert Bailey, a passionate Security Engineer with a deep fascination for all things related to malware, reverse engineering, and white hat ethical hacking.

    As a white hat hacker, I firmly believe in the power of ethical hacking to bolster security measures. By identifying vulnerabilities and providing solutions, I contribute to the proactive defense of digital infrastructures.

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