Dashost.exe Virus ⛏️ (Coin Miner Trojan) Removal

What is Dashost.exe process?

As I have actually mentioned in the previous paragraph, Dashost.exe is a coin miner virus. The names of the .exe file may be different, however, the effects are generally the identical. Considering that coin miners focus on cryptocurrency mining, they use all available hardware power of your personal computer to perform this process. This virus does not pay attention to the fact that you probably need to use your system for other activities – it will always take over 80% of your processor power.

Dashost.exe – Extremely high CPU and GPU use

Besides CPU utilization, some of the coin miners also utilize GPU power for their operations. In that case, you will struggle also to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is usually utilized on 100%. It is not as important as CPU for system work, so Dashost.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and utilize all of it. It sometimes can cause sad consequences.

Crypto mining is a term that means the action of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a basic part of any project based on the blockchain technology. Since this operation takes a lot of calculations, a strong computer is needed. Exactly, the video card is better for this task, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms are usually constructed of dozens of video cards to complete their task efficiently. Such systems are not usable for “normal” purposes, like gaming or web browsing. Fraudsters who gain money 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 Dashost.exe miner?

First off, Dashost.exe malware makes your system overloaded. It is not able to run your applications anymore, as all processor power is consumed by a virus. That malware does not care for your necessities, all it focuses on is generating income on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely experience extremely sluggish performance. Pages can open for years, any type of logins will likely take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person who works online.

Dashost.exe Technical Summary.

“Visible” harm is not a single unpleasant activity coin miners perform to your PC. Dashost.exe coin miner likewise deals damage to your operating system. To perform all malevolent operations effectively, it ruins the security features of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to prevent recognition. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a load of new entries – they are brought in by this trojan miner to connect your PC to a malicious mining network. All these adjustments are about to be gone back to the initial state in the process of system recovery.

Hardware effects of coin miner activity

Besides making your PC slow, running at peak level for long times may trigger damage to your device and increase electricity bills. PC components are created to easily deal with high load, but they can do so only in case when they are in a good shape.

Small and covered processor cooling system is hard to broke. Meanwhile, GPUs have large and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily broke if touched while spinning, for example, by the user much earlier before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the extremely high load caused by Dashost.exe virus can easily lead to graphic card failure³. GPUs are also prone to have very fast wearing when used for crypto mining. It is surely an unwanted situation when your GPU’s performance plunges 20-30% only after 1-2 weeks of being used in such a way.

How did I get Dashost.exe coin miner virus?

Coin miners are one of the most common malevolent programs among “serious” viruses. Adware sometimes acts as a carrier for Dashost.exe malware infiltration: it shows you the banners, which contain a link to malware downloading. Sure, this abstract “malware” may belong to any kind – another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. However, the statistics say that around 30% of all malware spread through the malicious banners are coin miners – and Dashost.exe is just with 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 unreliable website as a part of a program. Users that spread hacked variants of favored programs (which do not require the license key) have small chances to get paid. Therefore, there is a huge temptation to add malware to the final package of the hacked application and get a coin for every installation. Before blaming these guys for hacking and malware spreading, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid buying the program in such a way? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much bigger sum for antivirus program as well as new parts for your PC.

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

Removing such a virus needs making use of specific tool. Appropriate anti-malware program should have high efficiency at scanning and be lightweight – in order to create no problems with usage also on weak systems. On top of that, it is recommended to have proactive security in your security tool – to halt the virus even before it launches. Microsoft Defender does not have these elements for different reasons. That’s why I’d advise you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that goal. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a perfect option that fits each of the specified characteristics.⁵

Before the malware removal, it is important to reboot your operating system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Dashost.exe miner consumes a lot of CPU 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.

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 software, along with the majority of non-crucial Windows components, are not started with the system start. That allows you to clean the system without dealing with high CPU usage of the coin miner.

Remove Dashost.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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