Wavepad.exe Virus ⛏️ (Coin Miner Trojan) Removal

Wavepad.exe executable file comes from a harmful application that can accurately be identified as a coin miner trojan. That malware type utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer roughly unusable because of high CPU use.
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What is Wavepad.exe process?

Wavepad.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus

As I have actually mentioned earlier, Wavepad.exe is a coin miner trojan virus. The names of the .exe file can be diverse, however, the impacts are almost always the same. Since coin miners aim at cryptocurrency mining, they use all available hardware power of your personal computer to perform this operation. This virus doesn’t care about the fact that you probably need to make use of your system for other activities – it will continuously consume over 80% of your CPU power.

Wavepad.exe Windows Process

Wavepad.exe – Really high CPU as well as GPU use

Besides CPU utilization, some of the coin miners also utilize GPU power for their operations. In that situation, you will likely struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often utilized on 100%. It is not as crucial as processor for system work, so Wavepad.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and use it all. It often may lead to unhappy results.

Shortly about cryptocurrency mining

Crypto mining is a term that means the activity of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a integral element of anything based on the blockchain technology. Since this action takes a lot of calculations, a very powerful desktop is needed. Exactly, the GPU is better for this purpose, because they have more cores available. Cryptocurrency mining farms are usually constructed 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

  • Microsoft Defender is stopped;
  • CPU and GPU is loaded at 80-90% exactly after the system start
  • Cooling fans are running at high speed and create a lot of noise
  • A single process in Task Manager consumes all CPU and GPU power
  • How dangerous is the Wavepad.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, Wavepad.exe virus makes your system overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, as all processor power is consumed by a virus. That malware does not care for your wants, all it focuses on is making money on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely experience incredibly slow efficiency. Pages will open up for years, any sort of logins will likely take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person that works online.

    Wavepad.exe Technical Summary.

    File NameWavepad.exe
    TypeTrojan Coin Miner
    Detection NameTrojan:Win32/CoinMiner
    Distribution MethodSoftware bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc.
    Similar behaviorRunner.exe, Apminertool.exe, Paint.exe
    RemovalDownload and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Wavepad.exe removal.

    “Visible” damage is not a solitary bad activity coin miners perform to your system. Wavepad.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your operating system. To perform all malicious functions effectively, it wrecks the security 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 load of new notes – they are added by this coin miner to connect your PC to a malicious cryptomining network. All these adjustments are about to be gone back to the original in the process of PC recovery.

    Hardware effects of coin miner activity

    Besides making your PC slow, performing at peak level for long times can cause damage to your device and raise electricity bills. PC components are designed to easily deal with high load, but they can do so only when they are in a good shape.

    Little and well-protected CPU fan is not very easy to damage. Meanwhile, GPUs have large and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily cracked if touched while working, for example, by the user much earlier before the malware injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the unusually high load caused by Wavepad.exe malware can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. GPUs are also tend to have increased wearing when utilized for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely a bad case when your GPU’s performance decreases on 20-30% only after 1-2 weeks of being exploited in such a way.

    How did I get Wavepad.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 widespread malicious programs through “major” malware. Adware frequently works as a carrier for Wavepad.exe malware injection: it demonstrates you the banners, which contain a link to malware downloading. Sure, this abstract “malware” can belong to any kind – another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. However, the statistics show that approximately 30% of all malware spread through the malicious banners are coin miners – and Wavepad.exe is just one of them.4

    Unwanted banners adware

    The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet

    One more way you could get this thing on your computer is by downloading it from the dubious web page as a part of a program. Users who spread hacked variants of popular programs (which do not demand the license key) have small chances to make money. For this reason, there is a very big temptation to include malware to the final package of the hacked application and receive a coin for every installation. Before criticizing these individuals for hacking and malware spreading, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid buying the program in such a way? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much bigger figure for antivirus software as well as new parts for your desktop.

    How to remove the Wavepad.exe miner from my PC?

    The best way to get rid of this coin miner virus is to use anti-malware software

    Getting rid of such a virus needs making use of special program. Appropriate security tool must have high efficiency at scanning and be lightweight – in order to make no problems with usage even on weak PCs. Additionally, it is recommended to have on-run security in your protection solution – to prevent the virus even before it starts. Microsoft Defender lacks these features for different reasons. That’s why I’d suggest you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that objective. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a superb choice that fits each of the mentioned characteristics.5

    Before the virus removal, it is important to boot your operating system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Wavepad.exe miner takes a lot of processor capacity, it is needed 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.

    Boot into Windows Safe Mode

    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.

    windows safe mode boot option with command prompt

    When your PC is in Safe Mode, all third-party applications, along with the majority of non-crucial Windows components, are not launched with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the computer without dealing with high CPU usage of the coin miner.

    Remove Wavepad.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.

    GridinSoft Anti-Malware free trial

    After activating your free trial, start Full scan. It may last up to 10 minutes. You may use the PC as usual.

    Scanning in GridinSoft Anti-Malware

    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.

    GridinSoft Anti-Malware after the scan process

    Now, you are good to go. Reboot your PC into a normal Windows mode and use just as there was nothing malicious.

    Remove Wavepad.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner

    Name: Wavepad.exe

    Description: The Wavepad.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This Wavepad.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

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    References

    1. Read about why Monero and DarkCoin are so popular amongst cybercriminals.
    2. Detailed explanation of how does cryptomining work.
    3. About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.
    4. Read more about various malware type on Cybersecurity Glossary.
    5. Our review on GridinSoft Anti-Malware.

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    About the author

    Robert Bailey

    I'm Robert Bailey, a passionate Security Engineer with a deep fascination for all things related to malware, reverse engineering, and white hat ethical hacking.

    As a white hat hacker, I firmly believe in the power of ethical hacking to bolster security measures. By identifying vulnerabilities and providing solutions, I contribute to the proactive defense of digital infrastructures.

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