Conhost.exe Virus ⛏️ (Coin Miner Trojan) Removal

What is Conhost.exe process?

As I have mentioned before, Conhost.exe is a coin miner trojan virus. The names of the .exe file can be different, however, the consequences are almost always the same. Because coin miners focus on cryptocurrency mining, they utilize all available hardware capacity of your desktop to conduct this process. This malware doesn’t take note of the fact that you may need to make use of your device for other activities – it will constantly consume over 80% of your CPU power.

Conhost.exe – Really high CPU and GPU use

Besides CPU consumption, some of the coin miners also utilize GPU power for their tasks. In that case, you will likely struggle also to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is often used on 100%. It is not as critical as processor for system work, so Conhost.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and use it all. It often can result in unhappy effects.

Cryptocurrency mining term means the operation of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a basic element of anything based on the blockchain technology. Since this operation takes a lot of calculations, a very powerful PC is needed. Exactly, the video card is better for this task, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms are usually constructed of tens and hundreds of GPUs to complete their task efficiently. Such computer systems are not usable for “classic” purposes, like gaming or browsing the Web. Fraudsters who make profit via this coin miner use someones’ computers instead, even if they are used for the regular activity.²

List of the typical coin miner symptoms

How dangerous is the Conhost.exe miner?

First off, Conhost.exe malware makes your computer overloaded. It is not able to run your applications anymore, since all processor power is consumed by a virus. That malware does not care for your needs, 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 sluggish efficiency. Pages can open up for years, any sort of logins will take about a minute – just a horror story for a person who does a job online.

Conhost.exe Technical Summary.

“Visible” harm is not a solitary unpleasant activity coin miners perform to your system. Conhost.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your operating system. To conduct all malicious operations successfully, it ruins the security mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to avoid recognition. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a ton of new entries – they are brought in by this coin miner to connect your system to a malicious cryptomining network. All these adjustments are about to be reverted to the original in the process of system recovery.

Hardware effects of coin miner activity

Besides making your PC slow, performing at peak level for long times may trigger damage to your device and increase electricity costs. PC components are designed to easily deal with high load, but they are good with it only when they are in a good shape.

Tiny and covered processor cooling system is not very easy to broke. Meanwhile, graphic cards have big and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily broke if touched while spinning, for example, by the user much before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the really high load caused by Conhost.exe miner can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure³. Graphic cards are also prone to have very fast wearing when used for crypto mining. It is likely a bad case when your GPU’s performance plunges 20-30% just after several weeks of being used in such a way.

How did I get Conhost.exe coin miner virus?

Coin miners are the most prevalent malicious programs through “serious” viruses. Adware sometimes works as a carrier for Conhost.exe malware infiltration: it shows you the banners, which have a link to malware downloading. Yes, this abstract “malware” may belong to any kind – another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. However, the statistics say that approximately 30% of all viruses spread through the malicious banners are coin miners – and Conhost.exe is right among them.⁴

The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet

An additional way you could get this thing on your computer is by downloading it from the suspicious 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 earn money. Hence, there is a very big lure to include malware to the final package of the hacked application and get a coin for each setup. Before criticizing these guys for hacking and malware distribution, ask yourself – is it okay to avoid buying the program in this manner? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much greater figure for antivirus program and new parts for your PC.

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

Getting rid of such a virus demands using special app. Appropriate security tool should have high efficiency at scanning and also be lightweight – in order to create no problems with usage even on weak systems. In addition, it is recommended to have on-run security in your security solution – to prevent the virus even before it launches. Microsoft Defender lacks these functions for various reasons. That’s why I’d suggest you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that goal. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a perfect option that fits all of the specified features.⁵

Prior to the virus removal, it is important to boot your Windows into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Conhost.exe miner consumes a lot of CPU power, 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.

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

Remove Conhost.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.

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

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.

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

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 GridinSoft Threat Encyclopedia.
5. Our review on GridinSoft Anti-Malware.

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