Vmsa.exe process belongs to a malevolent application that can accurately be identified as a coin miner trojan. That malware type utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer almost nonfunctional because of high CPU use.
What is Vmsa.exe process?
Vmsa.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
As I have mentioned in the introduction, Vmsa.exe is a coin miner trojan. The names of the .exe file may be different, however, the impacts are generally the identical. Considering that coin miners focus on cryptocurrency mining, they use all possible hardware capacity of your PC to conduct this operation. This malware does not pay attention to the fact that you probably want to make use of your machine for other activities – it will consistently consume over 80% of your CPU power.
Vmsa.exe – Very high CPU/GPU usage
Besides CPU consumption, some of the coin miners also use GPU power for their tasks. In that instance, you will struggle also to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is usually used on 100%. It is not as critical as processor for system work, so Vmsa.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and use all of it. It sometimes may cause sad consequences.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
Cryptocurrency mining term means the action of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a integral part of any project based on the blockchain technology. Since this action takes a lot of calculations, a strong machine is needed. Exactly, the video card is better for this task, because they have more cores available. Cryptocurrency mining farms usually consist of dozens of graphic cards to conduct their activity effectively. Such systems are not usable for “normal” 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
How dangerous is the Vmsa.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
First, Vmsa.exe malware makes your system overloaded. It is not able to run your applications now, since all processor power is consumed by a malware. That malware does not care for your wants, all it pays attention to is generating profits on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely suffer from exceptionally slow efficiency. Pages will open up for years, any type of logins will take about a minute – just a headache for a person that works online.
Vmsa.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Vmsa.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Wrap.exe, Vncutil.exe, Comsore3.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Vmsa.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a solitary negative thing coin miners perform to your personal computer. Vmsa.exe coin miner also deals damage to your OS. To carry out all malevolent functions properly, it wrecks the protection mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops 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 PC to a malicious cryptomining network. All these adjustments 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 computer, running at peak level for a long period of time can cause damage to your machine and increase power costs. PC elements are designed to easily get along with high load, but they can do so only in case when they are in a good shape.
Small and covered CPU fan is hard to crack. Meanwhile, GPUs have large 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 really high load caused by Vmsa.exe miner can easily lead to GPU failure3. GPUs are also prone to have increased wearing when used for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely a bad situation when your GPU’s performance decreases on 20-30% only after several weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Vmsa.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 common malevolent programs through “severe” viruses. Adware sometimes works as a carrier for Vmsa.exe malware infiltration: it shows you the banners, which contain a link to malware downloading. Yes, this abstract “malware” can belong to any kind – yet another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. However, the statistics show that about 30% of all malware spread through the malevolent banners are coin miners – and Vmsa.exe is just one of them.4
The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet
An additional way you could get this thing on your PC is by downloading it from the unreliable website as a part of a program. People that spread hacked variants of well-known programs (which do not need 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 application and acquire a coin for each installation. Before blaming these guys for hacking and also malware distribution, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid buying the program in this manner? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much greater sum for antivirus software and new parts for your computer.
How to remove the Vmsa.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 demands making use of special tool. Proper anti-malware program should have high efficiency at scanning and be lightweight – in order to create no problems with utilization even on weak PCs. Additionally, it is better to have on-run security in your security tool – to halt the virus even before it launches. Microsoft Defender does not have these features for various reasons. That’s why I’d advise you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that purpose. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is an ideal choice that fits all of the mentioned features.5
Prior to the virus removal, it is important to boot your Windows into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Vmsa.exe miner takes a lot of CPU power, it is required 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.
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 PC is in Safe Mode, all third-party apps, along with the majority of non-crucial Windows components, are not started with the system start. That allows you to clean the PC without dealing with high processor usage of the coin miner.
Remove Vmsa.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.
After activating your free trial, start Full scan. It may last up to 10 minutes. You may use the PC as usual.
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.
Now, you are good to go. Reboot your PC into a normal Windows mode and use just as there was nothing malicious.
Remove Vmsa.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner
Name: Vmsa.exe
Description: The Vmsa.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This Vmsa.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
User Review
( votes)References
- Read about why Monero and DarkCoin are so popular amongst cybercriminals.
- Detailed explanation of how does cryptomining work.
- About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.
- Read more about various malware type on Cybersecurity Glossary.
- Our review on GridinSoft Anti-Malware.
