Sxstrace.exe process comes from a harmful application that can properly be identified as a coin miner virus. That malware type uses your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your personal computer roughly unfunctional because of high CPU usage.
What is Sxstrace.exe process?
Sxstrace.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Sxstrace.exe – Really high CPU and GPU usage
Besides CPU utilization, some of the coin miners additionally use GPU power for their operations. In that case, you will struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is usually utilized on 100%. It is not as critical as CPU for system work, so Sxstrace.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and utilize all of it. It often can cause unhappy consequences.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Sxstrace.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
First off, Sxstrace.exe malware makes your PC overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, as all processor power is consumed by a malware. That malware does not care for your demands, all it pays attention to is making money on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely experience extremely sluggish efficiency. Pages can open up for years, any kind of logins will take about a minute – just a headache for a person who does a job online.
Sxstrace.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Sxstrace.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Srbpolaris.exe, Sgrmbroker.exe, Program.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Sxstrace.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a single bad activity coin miners perform to your computer. Sxstrace.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your OS. To conduct all malicious functions properly, it ruins 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 notes – they are added by this trojan miner to connect your PC to a malicious mining network. All these adjustments are about to be gone back to the original in the process of system recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides slowing down your PC, performing at peak level for long times may trigger damage to your device as well as increase power costs. PC elements are created to easily deal with high load, but they can do so only in case when they are in a good shape.
Compact and covered CPU fan is hard to crack. Meanwhile, graphic cards have large and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily broke if affected while working, for instance, by the user much before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the extremely high load caused by Sxstrace.exe virus can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. Video cards are also prone to have increased wearing when used for crypto mining. It is likely an unwanted situation when the performance of your graphic card decreases on 20-30% just after 1-2 weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Sxstrace.exe coin miner virus?
Coin miners are spread through different ways, but their main sources are malicious banners and programs from dubious sources
The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet
Another way you could get this thing on your PC is by downloading it from the untrustworthy website as a part of a program. People who spread hacked variants of favored programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to get paid. For this reason, there is a very big lure to add malware to the final package of the hacked application and acquire a coin for every setup. Before criticizing these individuals for hacking and also malware distribution, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid paying for 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 Sxstrace.exe miner from my PC?
The best way to get rid of this coin miner virus is to use anti-malware software
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 programs, along with the majority of non-critical Windows components, are not started with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the system without dealing with high CPU usage of the coin miner.
References
- Read about why Monero and DarkCoin are so popular amongst cybercriminals.
- About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.
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