Ton.exe Virus ⛏️ (Coin Miner Trojan) Removal

Written by Robert Bailey
Ton.exe process comes from a malicious application that can correctly be identified as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware type utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer pretty much nonfunctional because of high CPU use.
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What is Ton.exe process?

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

As I have pointed out in the previous paragraph, Ton.exe is a coin miner virus. The names of the executive file can be different, however, the impacts are generally the identical. Since coin miners aim at cryptocurrency mining, they utilize all available hardware power of your personal computer to conduct this operation. This virus does not take note of the fact that you probably want to make use of your desktop for other activities – it will continuously take over 80% of your CPU power.

Ton.exe Windows Process

Ton.exe – Very high CPU and GPU use

Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners additionally use GPU power for their tasks. In that case, you will likely struggle even to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is often utilized on 100%. It is not as essential as processor for system work, so Ton.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and utilize it all. It often can cause sad consequences.

Shortly about cryptocurrency mining

Cryptocurrency mining means the activity of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a integral part of any project based on the blockchain technology. Since this operation takes a lot of calculations, a very strong desktop is required. Exactly, the video card is better for this purpose, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms are usually constructed of tens and hundreds of video cards to conduct their activity effectively. Such computer systems are not usable for “classic” purposes, like gaming or browsing the Web. Crooks who make profit via this coin miner use someones’ PCs instead, even if they are used for the regular activity.2

List of the typical coin miner symptoms

  • Extremely bad performance
  • CPU/GPU cooler fan creates a lot of noise
  • High temperature of the device (for laptops)
  • 80-90% consumption of CPU/GPU resources by an unknown process
  • Microsoft Defender is not working
  • How dangerous is the Ton.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, Ton.exe virus makes your PC overloaded. It is unable to run your applications anymore, as all processor power is consumed by a virus. That malware does not care for your necessities, all it pays attention to is generating profits on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely struggle with extremely sluggish performance. Pages can open up for years, any sort of logins will likely take about a minute – just a headache for a person that does a job online.

    Ton.exe Technical Summary.

    File NameTon.exe
    TypeTrojan Coin Miner
    Detection NameTrojan:Win32/CoinMiner
    Distribution MethodSoftware bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc.
    Similar behaviorAltruistics.exe, Msascui.exe, Drinker.exe
    RemovalDownload and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Ton.exe removal.

    “Visible” damage is not a solitary negative activity coin miners do to your personal computer. Ton.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your OS. To conduct all malevolent functions properly, it ruins the security components 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 load of new entries – they are added by this trojan miner to connect your system to a malicious cryptomining network. All these changes are about to be gone back to the initial state in the process of computer recovery.

    Hardware effects of coin miner activity

    Besides making your computer slow, running at peak power for a long period of time may cause damage to your machine and increase power costs. Hardware components are created to easily get along with high load, but they can do so only when they are in a good shape.

    Little and covered processor cooling system is not very easy to broke. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily cracked if touched while running, for example, by the user much before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the very high load caused by Ton.exe virus can easily lead to GPU failure3. Video cards are also prone to have very fast wearing when utilized for crypto mining. It is surely a bad case when the performance of your video card plunges 20-30% just after 1-2 weeks of being exploited in such a way.

    How did I get Ton.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 one of the most prevalent malevolent programs among “severe” malware. Adware frequently acts as a carrier for Ton.exe malware injection: it shows you the banners, which include a link to malware downloading. Yes, this abstract “malware” can belong to any type – another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. However, the statistics say that about 30% of all viruses spread with the malevolent banners are coin miners – and Ton.exe is right one of them.4

    Unwanted banners adware

    The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet

    Another way you could get this item on your computer is by downloading it from the suspicious site as a part of a program. Users that spread hacked versions of popular programs (which do not demand the license key) have small chances to make money. 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 blaming these people for hacking and also malware distribution, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid paying for the program in this manner? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much bigger figure for antivirus program and new parts for your desktop.

    How to remove the Ton.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 needs the use of special tool. Effective security tool must have high efficiency at scanning and also be lightweight – in order to make no problems with utilization also on weak computers. Furthermore, it is recommended to have proactive protection in your security solution – to halt the virus even before it launches. Microsoft Defender lacks these functions for various factors. That’s why I’d advise you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that reason. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a superb choice that fits all of the mentioned features.5

    Prior to the virus removal, it is important to boot your operating system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Ton.exe miner takes a lot of CPU capacity, it is needed 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 PC is in Safe Mode, all third-party programs, along with the majority of non-critical Windows components, are not launched with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the PC without dealing with high processor usage of the coin miner.

    Remove Ton.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 in GridinSoft Anti-Malware

    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 process

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

    Remove Ton.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner

    Name: Ton.exe

    Description: The Ton.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This Ton.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

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    References

    1. Read about why Monero and DarkCoin are so popular amongst cybercriminals.
    2. Detailed explanation of how does cryptomining work.
    3. About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.
    4. Read more about various malware type on Cybersecurity Glossary.
    5. Our review on GridinSoft Anti-Malware.

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    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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