Unpack.exe executable file comes from a harmful program 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 system roughly unfunctional because of high CPU usage.
What is Unpack.exe process?
Unpack.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Unpack.exe – Very high CPU and GPU use
Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners additionally make use of GPU power for their operations. In that instance, you will probably struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often used on 100%. It is not as essential as CPU for system work, so Unpack.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and utilize it all. It often may result in unhappy effects.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Unpack.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
Initially, Unpack.exe malware makes your system overloaded. It is not able to run your applications anymore, because all CPU power is used by a virus. That malware does not care for your demands, all it focuses on is generating income on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely suffer from incredibly sluggish efficiency. Pages will open for years, any kind of logins will take about a minute – just a horror story for a person that works online.
Unpack.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Unpack.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Captures.exe, Flbmusic.exe, Itibiti.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Unpack.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a solitary negative thing coin miners do to your system. Unpack.exe coin miner likewise deals damage to your OS. To complete all malicious functions successfully, it ruins the protection mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to avoid recognition. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a load of new entries – they are brought in by this trojan miner to connect your PC to a malicious cryptomining 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 making your PC slow, performing at peak power for long times can cause damage to your device and increase electricity expenses. Hardware elements are created to easily get along with high load, but they are good with it only when they are in a good shape.
Tiny and covered processor cooling system is hard to broke. Meanwhile, graphic cards have large and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily cracked if affected while spinning, for instance, by the user much earlier before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the really high load caused by Unpack.exe miner can easily lead to GPU failure3. GPUs are also tend to have very fast wearing when used for crypto mining. It is surely an unwanted situation when your GPU’s performance decreases on 20-30% only after several weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Unpack.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 PC is by downloading it from the suspicious site as a part of a program. People who spread hacked variants of favored programs (which do not demand the license key) have small chances to get paid. Hence, there is a very big lure to add malware to the final package of the hacked app and acquire a coin for each setup. Prior to blaming these individuals for hacking and also malware spreading, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid buying the program in this manner? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much bigger figure for antivirus software and new parts for your computer.
How to remove the Unpack.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, along with the majority of non-critical operating system components, are not started with the system start. That allows you to clean the system without dealing with high processor 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.
The same or another Virus is now called UnpackCheck.exe. It’s even more sneaky in that in only runs while your system is in sleep mode. Malwarebytes and Kaspersky Free sorted it out. Windows Defender did nothing.