System123.exe process comes from a harmful program that can accurately be defined as a coin miner virus. That malware type uses your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer roughly unusable because of high CPU usage.
What is System123.exe process?
System123.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
System123.exe – Really high CPU and GPU usage
Besides CPU consumption, some of the coin miners additionally utilize GPU power for their tasks. In that situation, you will probably struggle even to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is usually used on 100%. It is not as critical as CPU for system work, so System123.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and utilize it all. It sometimes may cause sad consequences.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the System123.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
First of all, System123.exe malware makes your PC overloaded. It is not able to run your applications now, because all CPU power is consumed by a malware. 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 suffer from exceptionally sluggish performance. Pages can open up for years, any type of logins will take about a minute – just a horror story for a person who does a job online.
System123.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | System123.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Lineinst.exe, Minerhash.exe, Zecminer64.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic System123.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a single negative thing coin miners do to your personal computer. System123.exe coin miner also deals damage to your OS. To execute all malicious operations successfully, it ruins the protection mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to avoid detection. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a ton of new notes – they are brought in by this coin miner to connect your computer to a malicious mining network. All these adjustments shall be reverted to the original in the process of PC recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides decreasing your computer’s performance, performing at peak power for a long period of time can cause damage to your machine as well as increase electricity expenses. Hardware components are designed to easily deal with high load, but they are good with it only when they are in a good shape.
Compact and covered CPU fan is hard to broke. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily cracked if touched while working, for example, by the user much before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the unusually high load caused by System123.exe virus can easily lead to GPU failure3. Graphic cards are also tend to have very fast wearing when used for cryptocurrency mining. It is likely an undesirable situation when your GPU’s performance decreases on 20-30% only after 1-2 weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get System123.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
One more way you could get this thing on your computer is by downloading it from the dubious website as a part of a program. People that spread hacked versions of favored programs (which do not require the license key) have small chances to earn money. Therefore, there is a very big temptation to add malware to the final package of the hacked app and acquire a coin for every installation. Prior to criticizing these individuals for hacking and malware distribution, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid purchasing the program in this manner? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much bigger figure for antivirus software and new parts for your desktop.
How to remove the System123.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 system is in Safe Mode, all third-party applications, just like the majority of non-critical operating system components, are not started with the system start. That allows you to clean the computer 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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