Tha.exe process comes from a harmful program that can properly be recognized as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware form utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer pretty much unusable because of high CPU utilization.
What is Tha.exe process?
Tha.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Tha.exe – Very high CPU as well as GPU use
Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners additionally make use of GPU power for their operations. In that case, you will probably struggle even to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is usually used on 100%. It is not as crucial as processor for system work, so Tha.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and utilize it all. It often can result in bad results.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Tha.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
First, Tha.exe virus makes your computer overloaded. It is not able to run your applications now, since all processor power is used by a virus. That malware does not care for your wants, all it focuses on is generating profits on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely experience incredibly slow performance. 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.
Tha.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Tha.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Yakopayu.exe, Verus.solver, Btg.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Tha.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a solitary unpleasant thing coin miners perform to your computer. Tha.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your operating system. To carry out all malicious functions correctly, it wrecks the security mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to prevent detection. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a ton of new entries – they are brought in by this coin miner to connect your system to a malicious mining network. All these changes shall be thrown back to the initial state in the process of system recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides decreasing your system’s performance, performing at peak level for a long period of time may cause damage to your machine and increase power costs. Hardware components are designed to easily deal with high load, but they are good with it only in case when they are in a good shape.
Small and well-protected CPU cooling system is quite hard to damage. Meanwhile, GPUs have large and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily cracked if affected while running, for example, by the user much earlier before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the really high load caused by Tha.exe malware can easily lead to graphic card failure3. Video cards are also prone to have very fast wearing when utilized for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely an undesirable case when the performance of your GPU plunges 20-30% just after several weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Tha.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. Users who spread hacked versions of well-known programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to make money. Thus, there is a very big temptation to add in malware to the final package of the hacked app and get a coin for each setup. Prior to criticizing these individuals for hacking and malware distribution, ask yourself – is it okay to avoid paying for the program in such a way? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much bigger sum for antivirus software and new parts for your desktop.
How to remove the Tha.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 apps, just like the majority of non-critical operating system components, are not started with the system start. That gives you the ability 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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