Vscan.exe executable file comes from a malevolent program that can properly be recognized as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware form utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer almost nonfunctional as a result of high CPU utilization.
What is Vscan.exe process?
Vscan.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
As I have actually specified previously, Vscan.exe is a coin miner trojan virus. The names of the executive file may be different, but the consequences are generally the same. Since coin miners focus on cryptocurrency mining, they utilize all possible hardware power of your PC to run this procedure. This virus doesn’t 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.
Vscan.exe – Very high CPU/GPU use
Besides CPU utilization, some of the coin miners also use GPU power for their tasks. In that situation, you will struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is usually used on 100%. It is not as vital as processor for system work, so Vscan.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and use it all. It sometimes may lead to unhappy results.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
Cryptocurrency mining means the action of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a basic part of anything based on the blockchain technology. Since this action takes a lot of calculations, a high-end computer is required. Exactly, the GPU is better for this task, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms usually consist of dozens of GPUs to complete their task efficiently. 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 Vscan.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
First, Vscan.exe malware makes your system overloaded. It is not able to run your applications now, because all CPU power is used by a virus. 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 browser is open, you will likely suffer from incredibly slow efficiency. Pages can open up for years, any type of logins will likely take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person that does a job online.
Vscan.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Vscan.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Pdfmagic.exe, Filecoauth.exe, Srtasks.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Vscan.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a single unpleasant thing coin miners perform to your PC. Vscan.exe coin miner also deals damage to your operating system. To execute all malicious operations correctly, it wrecks the protection features of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to avoid detection. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a ton of new notes – they are added by this trojan miner to connect your system to a malicious mining network. All these adjustments are about to be thrown back to the initial state in the process of PC recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides making your PC slow, running at peak power for a long period of time can trigger damage to your machine as well as raise electricity bills. PC components are designed to easily deal with high load, but they can do so only in case when they are in a good shape.
Little and well-protected processor fan is hard to damage. Meanwhile, GPUs have large and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily broke if affected while working, for instance, by the user much earlier before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the unusually high load caused by Vscan.exe virus can easily lead to graphic card failure3. GPUs are also prone to have increased wearing when utilized for crypto mining. It is likely an undesirable case when your GPU’s performance plunges 20-30% just after 1-2 weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Vscan.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 the most widespread malicious programs among “major” malware. Adware frequently serves as a carrier for Vscan.exe malware infiltration: it shows you the banners, which have a link to malware downloading. Yes, this abstract “malware” may belong to any type – yet another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. However, the statistics say that about 30% of all malware spread with the malicious banners are coin miners – and Vscan.exe is just with them.
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 dubious site as a part of a program. People that spread hacked variants of favored programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to make money. Thus, there is a very big lure to include malware to the final package of the hacked application and receive a coin for each setup. Prior to blaming these guys for hacking and also malware spreading, ask yourself – is it okay to avoid purchasing the program in such a way? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much greater figure for antivirus software as well as new parts for your computer.
How to remove the Vscan.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 apps, just like the majority of non-crucial system components, are not launched 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.
- Detailed explanation of how does cryptomining work.
- About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.
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