What is Wincsvns.exe process?

As I have mentioned in the introduction, Wincsvns.exe is a coin miner trojan. The names of the .exe file can be diverse, however, the effects are generally the identical. Because coin miners focus on cryptocurrency mining, they use all available hardware power of your PC to perform this process. This malware doesn’t care about the fact that you probably need to use your system for other tasks – it will consistently use over 80% of your CPU power.

Wincsvns.exe – Very high CPU and GPU usage

Besides CPU consumption, some of the coin miners also make use of GPU power for their operations. In that situation, you will likely struggle also to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is often utilized on 100%. It is not as vital as CPU for system work, so Wincsvns.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and use all of it. It sometimes may cause sad results.

Crypto mining is a term that means the operation of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a integral element of anything based on the blockchain technology. Since this operation takes a lot of calculations, a strong machine is required. Exactly, the graphic card is better for this task, because they have more cores available. Cryptocurrency mining farms are usually constructed of tens and hundreds of video cards to complete their task efficiently. Such computer systems are not usable for “usual” purposes, like gaming or browsing the Web. Crooks 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 Wincsvns.exe miner?

Initially, Wincsvns.exe virus makes your computer overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, because all CPU power is consumed by a malware. 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 web browser is open, you will likely struggle with incredibly slow efficiency. Pages will open up for years, any type of logins will take about a minute – just a headache for a person that works online.

Wincsvns.exe Technical Summary.

“Visible” harm is not a single negative activity coin miners perform to your system. Wincsvns.exe coin miner also deals damage to your operating system. To conduct all malicious functions effectively, it ruins the security features of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to avoid detection. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a lot of new notes – they are added by this coin miner to connect your system to a malicious cryptomining network. All these changes are about to be thrown back to the initial state in the process of computer recovery.

Hardware effects of coin miner activity

Besides making your computer slow, performing at peak level for long times may cause damage to your machine and increase electricity expenses. Hardware elements are created to easily deal with high load, but they can do so only in case when they are in a good shape.

Compact and covered CPU fan is quite hard to broke. Meanwhile, GPUs have large and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily cracked if touched while working, for instance, by the user much before the malware injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the unusually high load caused by Wincsvns.exe can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure³. GPUs are also tend to have increased wearing when utilized for crypto mining. It is likely an unwanted situation when the performance of your GPU plunges 20-30% only after 1-2 weeks of being used in such a way.

How did I get Wincsvns.exe coin miner virus?

Coin miners are the most common malicious programs among “severe” malware. Adware sometimes functions as a carrier for Wincsvns.exe malware injection: it shows you the banners, which include a link to malware downloading. Yes, this abstract “malware” may belong to any type – yet another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. But the statistics show that about 30% of all malware spread with the malicious banners are coin miners – and Wincsvns.exe is right one of 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 unreliable site as a part of a program. Users who spread hacked versions of favored programs (which do not demand the license key) have small chances to make money. Therefore, there is a very big temptation to add malware to the final package of the hacked app and acquire a coin for each installation. Before criticizing these individuals for hacking and malware spreading, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid purchasing the program in such a way? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much bigger sum for antivirus software as well as new parts for your computer.

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

Removing such a virus needs using specific tool. Proper antivirus must have high performance at scanning and be lightweight – in order to make no problems with usage even on weak computers. Furthermore, it is recommended to have proactive protection in your protection solution – to stop the virus even before it starts. Microsoft Defender lacks these features for different reasons. That’s why I’d recommend you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that goal. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a perfect option that fits each of the discussed features.⁵

Before the malware removal, it is important to boot your system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Wincsvns.exe miner consumes a lot of processor power, it is required to halt 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 programs, just like the majority of non-critical operating system components, are not started with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the PC without dealing with high processor usage of the coin miner.

Remove Wincsvns.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.

Spanish Turkish