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
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
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
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
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.
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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