Remove Cr_hand.exe Miner Virus

What is Cr_hand.exe process?

As I have pointed out earlier, Cr_hand.exe is a coin miner virus. The names of the executive file can be diverse, but the consequences are almost always the same. Considering that coin miners aim at cryptocurrency mining, they use all possible hardware power of your personal computer to run this operation. This virus does not pay attention to the fact that you probably want to use your PC for other activities – it will continuously use over 80% of your processor power.

Cr_hand.exe – Very high CPU and GPU use

Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners also make use of GPU power for their operations. In that situation, you will struggle even to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often used on 100%. It is not as vital as CPU for system work, so Cr_hand.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and utilize all of it. It sometimes may cause unhappy results.

Cryptocurrency mining 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 desktop is needed. Exactly, the video card is better for this purpose, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms are usually constructed of dozens of video cards to conduct their activity effectively. Such computer systems are not usable for “classic” purposes, like gaming or web browsing. Crooks who gain money via this coin miner use someones’ hardware instead, even if they are used for the regular activity.²

List of the typical coin miner symptoms

How dangerous is the Cr_hand.exe miner?

First, Cr_hand.exe virus makes your computer overloaded. It is unable to run your applications anymore, as all CPU power is consumed by a virus. That malware does not care for your wants, all it focuses on is generating income on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely experience incredibly sluggish efficiency. Pages will open up for years, any type of logins will take about a minute – just a headache for a person that does a job online.

Cr_hand.exe Technical Summary.

“Visible” damage is not a single unpleasant activity coin miners perform to your computer. Cr_hand.exe coin miner likewise deals damage to your operating system. To carry out all malevolent operations properly, it wrecks the security mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to prevent detection. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a number of new entries – they are brought in by this coin miner to connect your system to a malicious mining network. All these changes are about to be thrown back to the original in the process of system recovery.

Hardware effects of coin miner activity

Besides decreasing your system’s performance, performing at peak power for a long period of time can cause damage to your machine and increase power costs. Hardware elements are designed to easily deal with high load, but they can do so only in case when they are in a good shape.

Little and well-protected processor fan is not very easy to broke. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily broke if affected while spinning, for instance, by the user much before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the really high load caused by Cr_hand.exe malware can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure³. Graphic cards are also prone to have fast wearing when utilized for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely a bad situation when your GPU’s performance plunges 20-30% just after several weeks of being used in such a way.

How did I get Cr_hand.exe coin miner virus?

Coin miners are the most prevalent malicious programs through “major” viruses. Adware sometimes acts as a carrier for Cr_hand.exe malware injection: it shows you the banners, which have a link to malware downloading. Yes, this abstract “malware” can belong to any kind – an additional adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. However, the statistics show that about 30% of all malware spread through the malevolent banners are coin miners – and Cr_hand.exe is just one of them.⁴

The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet

Another way you could get this item on your PC is by downloading it from the unreliable site as a part of a program. Users that spread hacked variants of popular programs (which do not demand the license key) have small chances to make money. Therefore, there is a huge lure to include malware to the final package of the hacked app 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 much cheaper to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much greater figure for antivirus software as well as new parts for your desktop.

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

Eliminating such a virus requires using specific program. Appropriate security tool must have high capability at scanning and also be lightweight – in order to create no problems with usage even on weak systems. Furthermore, it is better to have proactive security in your security solution – to halt the virus even before it launches. Microsoft Defender does not have these functions for different reasons. That’s why I’d suggest you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that purpose. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is an ideal option that fits all of the mentioned features.⁵

Before the malware removal, it is important to boot your operating system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Cr_hand.exe miner takes a lot of CPU power, it is required 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 system is in Safe Mode, all third-party applications, just like the majority of non-critical operating system components, are not launched with the system start. That allows you to clean the computer without dealing with high processor usage of the coin miner.

Remove Cr_hand.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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