Wup Virus ⛏️ (Coin Miner Trojan) Removal

What is Wup process?

As I have pointed out before, Wup is a coin miner trojan. The names of the executive file can be different, but the impacts are usually the same. Since coin miners aim at cryptocurrency mining, they use all possible hardware power of your personal computer to run this operation. This malware doesn’t pay attention to the fact that you probably need to use your computer for other activities – it will always use over 80% of your CPU power.

Wup – Really high CPU/GPU use

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

Cryptocurrency mining term means the activity of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a integral part of anything based on the blockchain technology. Since this operation takes a lot of calculations, a very powerful machine is required. Exactly, the GPU is better for this task, because they have more cores available. Cryptocurrency mining farms are usually constructed of dozens of video cards to conduct their activity effectively. Such systems are not usable for “usual” purposes, like gaming or browsing the Web. 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 Wup miner?

First off, Wup virus makes your system overloaded. It is unable to run your applications anymore, since all CPU power is used by a malware. 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 browser is open, you will likely suffer from extremely slow performance. 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.

Wup Technical Summary.

“Visible” damage is not a single unpleasant thing coin miners perform to your PC. Wup coin miner likewise deals damage to your OS. To conduct all malevolent functions effectively, it wrecks the protection features 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 ton of new entries – they are added by this trojan miner to connect your PC to a malicious mining network. All these changes shall be gone back to the initial state in the process of system recovery.

Hardware effects of coin miner activity

Besides slowing down your computer, running at peak power for long times can trigger damage to your machine and raise electricity costs. PC components are designed to easily deal with high load, but they can do so only when they are in a good shape.

Tiny and well-protected CPU cooling system is not very easy to damage. Meanwhile, graphic cards have large and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily cracked if affected while working, for instance, by the user much earlier before the malware injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the really high load caused by Wup can easily lead to graphic card failure³. GPUs are also prone to have fast wearing when utilized for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely an unwanted situation when your GPU’s performance plunges 20-30% just after several weeks of being used in such a way.

How did I get Wup coin miner virus?

Coin miners are one of the most prevalent malevolent programs among “severe” viruses. Adware frequently functions as a carrier for Wup malware infiltration: it demonstrates you the banners, which contain a link to malware downloading. Sure, this abstract “malware” may belong to any kind – an additional adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. But the statistics say that approximately 30% of all malware spread with the malicious banners are coin miners – and Wup is right with them.⁴

The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet

One more way you could get this item on your PC is by downloading it from the untrustworthy 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 get paid. Therefore, there is a very big lure to include malware to the final package of the hacked application and acquire a coin for each setup. Prior to criticizing these guys for hacking and also malware distribution, ask yourself – is it okay to avoid paying for the program in such a way? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much greater sum for antivirus program and new parts for your computer.

How to remove the Wup miner from my PC?

Eliminating such a virus requires the use of special software. Appropriate anti-malware program must have high efficiency at scanning and be lightweight – in order to make no problems with utilization even on weak PCs. In addition, it is recommended to have proactive security in your security tool – to halt the virus even before it starts. Microsoft Defender lacks these functions for various factors. That’s why I’d suggest you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that reason. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a perfect option that fits each of the discussed qualities.⁵

Before the malware removal, it is important to reboot your operating system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Wup miner takes 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-critical 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 Wup 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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