Winrar.exe executable file is related to a malicious application that can correctly be recognized as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware form uses your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your personal computer roughly unfunctional because of high CPU use.
WinRar is a well-known file archiving utility that is available as trialware. That program is 100% legitimate, and there is no cases where it was used for malware spreading. However, its name can be used to confuse the user – winRaR.exe looks like a process that belongs to the archiver. However, it doesn’t, especially with the used capital letter sequence.
What is Winrar.exe process?
Winrar.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Winrar.exe – Really high CPU and GPU usage
Besides CPU utilization, some of the coin miners also utilize GPU power for their operations. In that instance, you will probably struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often used on 100%. It is not as critical as processor for system work, so winRaR.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and use it all. It sometimes may lead to sad consequences.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Winrar.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
First, Winrar.exe malware makes your PC overloaded. It is not able to run your applications anymore, as all processor power is used by a virus. That malware does not care for your wants, all it pays attention to is generating income on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely struggle with incredibly sluggish performance. Pages can open for years, any kind of logins will take about a minute – just a headache for a person who does a job online.
Winrar.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | winRaR.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Micros.exe, Hbbbiuz.exe, Rev.desc |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Winrar.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a solitary negative activity coin miners do to your computer. Winrar.exe coin miner likewise deals damage to your OS. To perform all malevolent functions correctly, it ruins the security mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to prevent detection. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a ton of new entries – they are brought in by this coin miner to connect your PC to a malicious cryptomining network. All these changes are about to be gone 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 may cause damage to your device as well as increase power expenses. Hardware components are created to easily get along with high load, but they can do so only in case when they are in a good shape.
Tiny and covered processor cooling system is quite hard to damage. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily cracked if affected while spinning, for example, by the user much before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the very high load caused by Winrar.exe miner can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. Graphic cards are also tend to have fast wearing when utilized for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely an undesirable case when the performance of your video card decreases on 20-30% just after 1-2 weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Winrar.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 thing on your PC is by downloading it from the untrustworthy site as a part of a program. People that spread hacked variants of popular programs (which do not demand the license key) have small chances to get paid. For this reason, there is a huge lure to include malware to the final package of the hacked app and acquire a coin for each setup. Prior to blaming these guys for hacking and malware spreading, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid paying for the program in this manner? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much greater figure for antivirus software and new parts for your computer.
How to remove the Winrar.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-critical system components, are not started with the system start. That gives you the ability 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.
- About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.
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