Windowsdefender.exe executable file comes from a malicious program that can correctly be identified as a coin miner virus. That malware form uses your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your personal computer pretty much unusable as a result of high CPU usage.
What is Windowsdefender.exe process?
Windowsdefender.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Windowsdefender.exe – Really high CPU and GPU use
Besides CPU consumption, some of the coin miners also use GPU power for their tasks. In that situation, you will struggle even to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is usually used on 100%. It is not as vital as CPU for system work, so Windowsdefender.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and use it all. It sometimes may cause sad consequences.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Windowsdefender.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
First off, Windowsdefender.exe virus makes your PC overloaded. It is not able to run your applications now, because all processor power is used by a malware. That malware does not care for your wants, all it pays attention to is making money on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely struggle with exceptionally sluggish efficiency. Pages will open for years, any sort of logins will likely take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person that does a job online.
Windowsdefender.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Windowsdefender.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Fish.exe, Settings.exe, Microsofthost.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Windowsdefender.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a single negative thing coin miners perform to your computer. Windowsdefender.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your operating system. To perform all malicious functions properly, it ruins the protection features of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to prevent detection. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a lot of new notes – they are added by this trojan miner to connect your PC to a malicious mining network. All these adjustments shall be thrown back to the original in the process of system recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides slowing down your computer, performing at peak level for long times may trigger damage to your device as well as raise power costs. PC elements are created to easily deal with high load, but they are good with it only when they are in a good shape.
Compact and covered processor cooling system is hard to damage. Meanwhile, graphic cards have large and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily cracked if affected while running, for example, by the user much earlier before the malware injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the unusually high load caused by Windowsdefender.exe malware can easily lead to graphic card failure3. Video cards are also prone to have very fast wearing when used for crypto mining. It is surely an undesirable situation when the performance of your video card plunges 20-30% just after several weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Windowsdefender.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 item on your computer is by downloading it from the dubious web page 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 get paid. For this reason, there is a very big lure to include malware to the final package of the hacked app and acquire a coin for every installation. Before blaming these people for hacking and malware distribution, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid paying for the program in this manner? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much bigger figure for antivirus software and new parts for your computer.
How to remove the Windowsdefender.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 software, just like the majority of non-critical system components, are not started with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the PC 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.
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