Utilman.exe executable file belongs to a malicious program that can correctly be recognized as a coin miner trojan. That malware type uses your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system roughly unfunctional because of high CPU use.
What is Utilman.exe process?
Utilman.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Utilman.exe – Very high CPU and GPU use
Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners additionally make use of GPU power for their tasks. In that instance, you will probably struggle even to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is usually utilized on 100%. It is not as important as CPU for system work, so Utilman.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and use it all. It often may result in bad consequences.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Utilman.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, Utilman.exe malware makes your PC overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, since all CPU power is consumed by a virus. 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 web browser is open, you will likely suffer from extremely slow efficiency. Pages can open up for years, any sort of logins will take about a minute – just a headache for a person who works online.
Utilman.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Utilman.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Unic.exe, Win64.exe, Consulta.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Utilman.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a single negative activity coin miners do to your system. Utilman.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your operating system. To conduct all malicious operations successfully, it ruins the protection features 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 number of new entries – they are added by this trojan miner to connect your computer to a malicious mining network. All these changes are about to be thrown back to the original in the process of computer recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides slowing down your PC, performing at peak level for a long period of time can trigger damage to your machine as well as raise electricity expenses. Hardware elements are created to easily deal with high load, but they can do so only in case when they are in a good shape.
Tiny and well-protected CPU fan is quite hard to damage. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily broke if touched while working, for instance, by the user much before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the extremely high load caused by Utilman.exe virus can easily lead to graphic card failure3. GPUs are also prone to have very fast wearing when used for cryptocurrency mining. It is likely an unwanted situation when the performance of your video card decreases on 20-30% only after several weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Utilman.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 item on your PC is by downloading it from the suspicious site as a part of a program. Users that spread hacked variants of well-known programs (which do not demand the license key) have small chances to get paid. Thus, there is a very big temptation to add malware to the final package of the hacked app and get a coin for every setup. Prior to blaming these people for hacking and malware spreading, ask yourself – is it OK 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 as well as new parts for your PC.
How to remove the Utilman.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-crucial 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.
utilmon.exe is a virus windows file? or a malware file hidden file