What is Cmmon32.exe process?

As I have specified previously, Cmmon32.exe is a coin miner trojan. The names of the .exe file may be diverse, however, the effects are generally the identical. Considering that coin miners aim at cryptocurrency mining, they use all available hardware capacity of your personal computer to run this operation. This malware doesn’t pay attention to the fact that you probably want to make use of your system for other activities – it will always consume over 80% of your processor power.

Cmmon32.exe – Very high CPU as well as GPU usage

Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners also utilize GPU power for their operations. In that case, you will probably struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often used on 100%. It is not as crucial as CPU for system work, so Cmmon32.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and use all of it. It sometimes can cause unhappy effects.

Cryptocurrency mining means the operation of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a integral part of anything based on the blockchain technology. Since this action takes a lot of calculations, a very strong PC is required. Exactly, the GPU is better for this purpose, because they have more cores available. Cryptocurrency mining farms are usually constructed of tens and hundreds of video cards to conduct their activity effectively. Such computer systems are not usable for “normal” purposes, like gaming or web browsing. Fraudsters who gain money via this coin miner use someones’ PCs instead, even if they are used for the regular activity.²

List of the typical coin miner symptoms

How dangerous is the Cmmon32.exe miner?

Initially, Cmmon32.exe malware makes your system overloaded. It is not able to run your applications now, as all processor power is used by a virus. That malware does not care for your wants, all it pays attention to is making money on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely suffer from extremely sluggish performance. Pages will open for years, any kind of logins will likely take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person who works online.

Cmmon32.exe Technical Summary.

“Visible” harm is not a single bad thing coin miners do to your PC. Cmmon32.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your operating system. To complete all malicious operations correctly, it ruins the security features of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to prevent recognition. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a lot of new notes – they are brought in by this coin miner to connect your computer to a malicious cryptomining network. All these changes shall be reverted to the initial state in the process of PC recovery.

Hardware effects of coin miner activity

Besides decreasing your computer’s performance, running at peak power for long times may cause damage to your machine and increase power expenses. PC components are created to easily deal with high load, but they are good with it only in case when they are in a good shape.

Small and well-protected processor cooling system is not very easy to broke. Meanwhile, GPUs have large and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily cracked if affected while running, for example, by the user much before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the very high load caused by Cmmon32.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 likely a bad case when the performance of your graphic card plunges 20-30% just after several weeks of being used in such a way.

How did I get Cmmon32.exe coin miner virus?

Coin miners are the most widespread malicious programs among “major” malware. Adware often serves as a carrier for Cmmon32.exe malware injection: it demonstrates you the banners, which have a link to malware downloading. Yes, this abstract “malware” can belong to any kind – yet another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. But the statistics say that approximately 30% of all malware spread through the malicious banners are coin miners – and Cmmon32.exe 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 computer is by downloading it from the suspicious website as a part of a program. Users that spread hacked versions of well-known programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to get paid. Hence, there is a very big lure to add in malware to the final package of the hacked application and receive a coin for each setup. Prior to blaming these individuals for hacking and malware spreading, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid purchasing the program in such a way? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much bigger figure for antivirus software as well as new parts for your PC.

How to remove the Cmmon32.exe miner from my PC?

Getting rid of such a virus needs using special software. Proper antivirus must have high performance at scanning and also be lightweight – in order to create no problems with utilization even on weak systems. Additionally, it is recommended to have on-run security in your protection solution – to stop the virus even before it launches. Microsoft Defender does not have these functions for different reasons. That’s why I’d advise you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that reason. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a great option that fits each of the discussed characteristics.⁵

Prior to the malware removal, it is important to reboot your operating system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Cmmon32.exe miner consumes a lot of CPU capacity, 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 software, along with the majority of non-crucial system components, are not launched with the system start. That allows you to clean the system without dealing with high processor usage of the coin miner.

Remove Cmmon32.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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