Winopen.exe process comes from a malicious program that can accurately be identified as a coin miner trojan. That malware form utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your personal computer pretty much nonfunctional as a result of high CPU usage.
What is Winopen.exe process?
Winopen.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Winopen.exe – Very high CPU/GPU usage
Besides CPU consumption, some of the coin miners additionally use GPU power for their tasks. In that situation, you will struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often used on 100%. It is not as vital as CPU for system work, so Winopen.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and utilize it all. It sometimes can result in sad effects.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Winopen.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
Initially, Winopen.exe malware makes your PC overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, as all CPU power is used by a malware. That malware does not care for your demands, all it focuses on is generating profits on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely struggle with extremely slow performance. Pages will open for years, any sort of logins will likely take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person who does a job online.
Winopen.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Winopen.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Host.exe, Fmcud.exe, Eu.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Winopen.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a single negative activity coin miners do to your PC. Winopen.exe coin miner also deals damage to your OS. To carry out all malicious functions properly, it ruins the security mechanisms 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 lot of new entries – they are brought in by this trojan miner to connect your computer to a malicious cryptomining network. All these changes shall be thrown back to the original in the process of computer 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 increase power expenses. Hardware components are designed to easily get along with high load, but they are good with it only in case when they are in a good shape.
Small and well-protected CPU fan is quite hard to crack. Meanwhile, GPUs have large and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily cracked if touched while working, for example, by the user much earlier before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the unusually high load caused by Winopen.exe miner can easily lead to graphic card failure3. Video cards are also tend to have fast wearing when used for cryptocurrency mining. It is likely a bad situation when the performance of your graphic card plunges 20-30% only after several weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Winopen.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
Another way you could get this item on your computer is by downloading it from the dubious website as a part of a program. People who spread hacked versions of popular programs (which do not require the license key) have small chances to earn money. Thus, there is a huge temptation to add in malware to the final package of the hacked app and get a coin for every setup. Before blaming these people for hacking and malware distribution, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid purchasing the program in this manner? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much bigger figure for antivirus program as well as new parts for your PC.
How to remove the Winopen.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 applications, just like the majority of non-crucial operating system components, are not started with the system start. That allows you to clean the computer 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.
Leave a Comment