Ventsislav has been covering the latest malware, software and newest tech developments at SensorsTechForum for 3 years now. He started out as a network administrator. Having graduated Marketing as well, Ventsislav also has passion for discovery of new shifts and innovations in cybersecurity that become game changers. After studying Value Chain Management and then Network Administration, he found his passion within cybersecrurity and is a strong believer in basic education of every user towards online safety.
Ventsislav has been covering the latest malware, software and newest tech developments at SensorsTechForum for 3 years now. He started out as a network administrator. Having graduated Marketing as well, Ventsislav also has passion for discovery of new shifts and innovations in cybersecurity that become game changers. After studying Value Chain Management and then Network Administration, he found his passion within cybersecrurity and is a strong believer in basic education of every user towards online safety.
Ventsislav has been covering the latest malware, software and newest tech developments at SensorsTechForum for 3 years now. He started out as a network administrator. Having graduated Marketing as well, Ventsislav also has passion for discovery of new shifts and innovations in cybersecurity that become game changers. After studying Value Chain Management and then Network Administration, he found his passion within cybersecrurity and is a strong believer in basic education of every user towards online safety.
Note! Your computer might be affected by driver.exe malware and other threats.
Threats such as driver.exe malware may be persistent on your system. They tend to re-appear if not fully deleted. A malware removal tool like SpyHunter will help you to remove malicious programs, saving you the time and the struggle of tracking down numerous malicious files. SpyHunter’s scanner is free but the paid version is needed to remove the malware threats. Read SpyHunter’s EULA and Privacy Policy
Ventsislav has been covering the latest malware, software and newest tech developments at SensorsTechForum for 3 years now. He started out as a network administrator. Having graduated Marketing as well, Ventsislav also has passion for discovery of new shifts and innovations in cybersecurity that become game changers. After studying Value Chain Management and then Network Administration, he found his passion within cybersecrurity and is a strong believer in basic education of every user towards online safety.
This blog post has been created to explain what is driver.exe cryptocurrency miner Trojan and show how to remove it from your computer plus protect your PC against future infections as well.
A new cryptocurrency miner malware, using the process driver.exe has been detected by malware researchers. The malware is known to be one of the most dangerous out there, since it uses the resources of the computers that are infected by it in order to generate cryptocurrency tokens at the benefit of the cyber-criminal who is behind the malware. This may result in multiple negative consequences for victims, including general slowing down of their computers plus their system may crash and freeze at times. In the event that your computer has been infected by the driver.exe crypto miner malware, it is strongly advisable to read this article and learn how to remove it from your PC plus how to protect yourself against future infections.
Threat Summary
Name
driver.exe malware
Type
CryptoCurrency Miner Malware
Short Description
Aims to mine for different cryptocurrencies on the victim’s computer after which may begin to
Symptoms
The driver.exe miner may begin to slow down your computer by using over 90% of both your CPU and GPU. This may result in your cooling fans to work at higher speeds.
Distribution Method
Via bundled installers, fake setups or via other PUP that has already been installed on your PC.
Detection Tool
See If Your System Has Been Affected by driver.exe malware
Fort this malware to be widespread, various strategies may be undertaken by the cyber-criminals who are behind it. They may include it as an e-mail attachment which pretends to be a legitimate type of document. Such types of files often pretend to be legitimate, such as:
Invoices.
Receipts for orders the victim hasn’t made.
Order confirmation files.
Files related to an undelivered order.
Such social engineering techniques are often used by hackers to trick victims into opening the malicious files of the malware and hence become infected. If it comes by an attachment, the file may not be directly uploaded as e-mail providers often scan for such files. Instead, most malicious files are often archived in Microsoft Office documents, that aim to obfuscate them from their malicious nature. Some files may even be fake Microsoft Office documents that contain malicious macros and can infect your computer by simply getting you to open them.
Besides this method of infection, there may also be other methods that may cause an infection. They are the passive methods and they often involve suspicious sites. Some lazier cyber-crooks prefer them as they only have to upload the file once on the site and all the victim has to do is search for it. Such fake files may be:
Fake setups of programs or games.
Fraudulent key generators.
Fake cracks for games.
Pretending-to-be patch-fixes for software or games.
Fake software activators.
Driver.exe Malware – Malicious Activity
Once an infection by this malware takes place on your computer system, you may immediately notice it, since the infection process triggers the main files of the virus, including driver.exe process. While pretending to be some sort of a driver-related process, this malware may begin to drop it’s malicious files on your computer. The malicious files may be more than one and may exist in the following Windows folders under different names:
After the malicious files are dropped on your computer the virus may create mutexes and execute functions of it’s malicious files that may result in some system files of your operating system to be modified. This is done with the purpose of the virus becoming able to run as an administrator the malicious drive.exe process. The only purpose of this is for the process to connect your computer to a cryptocurrency mining pool. Such pool is basically many miners that join their power together in order to begin generating cryptocurrencies by calculating and assembling hashes. The more hashing power is connected to the wallet of the cyber-criminal who has infected your PC with driver.exe, the more cryptocurrency tokens he or she will obtain for a fixed period of time. This is why most cyber-crooks who are behind miner viruses, like the driver.exe one often aim to infect a lot of people for short periods of time.
In addition to it’s malicious activity as a miner, the driver.exe virus may also perform other unwanted activities on your computers system, since it’s malware. Just like any other Trojan horse, this virus may:
Steal files from your PC.
Download and install other malware on it.
Make sure that it remains on your computer undetected and active, even if you delete some of it’s files.
Update itself to remain hidden.
Log your keystrokes.
Steal passwords from your computer.
Remove Driver.exe Miner Virus and Protect Your PC
Q: How Do I Remove Driver.exe and How Do I Protect Myself In the Future?
A: In order to remove the driver.exe miner, you should first stop the malicious processes of the malware by entering Windows Task Manager and stopping the malicious task by right-clicking on the driver.exe process and clicking on End Process or End Process tree. This results in the virus stopping to mine. After doing so, you may want to remove the malware preferably by following the automatic or manual removal instructions below, if you have removed malware manually and have the experience. Be advised that security experts strongly recommend to remove the driver.exe miner malware automatically by downloading an advanced anti-malware software, that aims to scan for and erase all malware from your system plus protect it against future infections as well.
Note! Your computer system may be affected by driver.exe malware and other threats. Scan Your PC with SpyHunter SpyHunter is a powerful malware removal tool designed to help users with in-depth system security analysis, detection and removal of threats such as driver.exe malware. Keep in mind, that SpyHunter’s scanner is only for malware detection. If SpyHunter detects malware on your PC, you will need to purchase SpyHunter’s malware removal tool to remove the malware threats. Read our SpyHunter 5 review. Click on the corresponding links to check SpyHunter’s EULA, Privacy Policy and Threat Assessment Criteria.
To remove driver.exe malware follow these steps:
1. Boot Your PC In Safe Mode to isolate and remove driver.exe malware files and objects
OFFER
Manual Removal Usually Takes Time and You Risk Damaging Your Files If Not Careful!
We Recommend To Scan Your PC with SpyHunter
Keep in mind, that SpyHunter’s scanner is only for malware detection. If SpyHunter detects malware on your PC, you will need to purchase SpyHunter’s malware removal tool to remove the malware threats. Read our SpyHunter 5 review. Click on the corresponding links to check SpyHunter’s EULA, Privacy Policy and Threat Assessment Criteria
Boot Your PC Into Safe Mode
1. For Windows XP, Vista and 7. 2. For Windows 8, 8.1 and 10. Fix registry entries created by malware and PUPs on your PC.
For Windows XP, Vista and 7 systems:
1. Remove all CDs and DVDs, and then Restart your PC from the “Start” menu. 2. Select one of the two options provided below:
– For PCs with a single operating system: Press “F8” repeatedly after the first boot screen shows up during the restart of your computer. In case the Windows logo appears on the screen, you have to repeat the same task again.
– For PCs with multiple operating systems: Тhe arrow keys will help you select the operating system you prefer to start in Safe Mode. Press “F8” just as described for a single operating system.
3. As the “Advanced Boot Options” screen appears, select the Safe Mode option you want using the arrow keys. As you make your selection, press “Enter“.
4. Log on to your computer using your administrator account
While your computer is in Safe Mode, the words “Safe Mode” will appear in all four corners of your screen.
Step 1: Open up the Start Menu.
Step 2: Click on the Power button (for Windows 8 it is the little arrow next to the “Shut Down” button) and whilst holding down “Shift” click on Restart.
Step 3: After reboot, a blue menu with options will appear. From them you should choose Troubleshoot.
Step 4: You will see the Troubleshoot menu. From this menu choose Advanced Options.
Step 5: After the Advanced Options menu appears, click on Startup Settings.
Step 6: From the Startup Settings menu, click on Restart.
Step 7: A menu will appear upon reboot. You can choose any of the three Safe Mode options by pressing its corresponding number and the machine will restart.
Some malicious scripts may modify the registry entries on your computer to change different settings. This is why cleaning your Windows Registry Database is recommended. Since the tutorial on how to do this is a bit long and tampering with registries could damage your computer if not done properly you should refer and follow our instructive article about fixing registry entries, especially if you are unexperienced in that area.
2. Find files created by driver.exe malware on your PC
Find files created by driver.exe malware
1. For Windows 8, 8.1 and 10. 2. For Windows XP, Vista, and 7.
For Newer Windows Operating Systems
Step 1:
On your keyboard press + R and write explorer.exe in the Run text box and then click on the Ok button.
Step 2:
Click on your PC from the quick access bar. This is usually an icon with a monitor and its name is either “My Computer”, “My PC” or “This PC” or whatever you have named it.
Step 3:
Navigate to the search box in the top-right of your PC’s screen and type “fileextension:” and after which type the file extension. If you are looking for malicious executables, an example may be “fileextension:exe”. After doing that, leave a space and type the file name you believe the malware has created. Here is how it may appear if your file has been found:
N.B. We recommend to wait for the green loading bar in the navination box to fill up in case the PC is looking for the file and hasn’t found it yet.
For Older Windows Operating Systems
In older Windows OS’s the conventional approach should be the effective one:
Step 1:
Click on the Start Menu icon (usually on your bottom-left) and then choose the Search preference.
Step 2:
After the search window appears, choose More Advanced Options from the search assistant box. Another way is by clicking on All Files and Folders.
Step 3:
After that type the name of the file you are looking for and click on the Search button. This might take some time after which results will appear. If you have found the malicious file, you may copy or open its location by right-clicking on it.
Now you should be able to discover any file on Windows as long as it is on your hard drive and is not concealed via special software.
Use SpyHunter to scan for malware and unwanted programs
3. Scan for malware and unwanted programs with SpyHunter Anti-Malware Tool
Scan your PC and Remove driver.exe malware with SpyHunter Anti-Malware Tool and back up your data
1. Install SpyHunter to scan for driver.exe malware and remove them.2. Scan with SpyHunter, Detect and Remove driver.exe malware. Back up your data to secure it from malware in the future.
Step 1: Click on the “Download” button to proceed to SpyHunter’s download page.
It is recommended to run a scan before purchasing the full version of the software to make sure that the current version of the malware can be detected by SpyHunter. Click on the corresponding links to check SpyHunter’s EULA, Privacy Policy and Threat Assessment Criteria.
Step 2: Guide yourself by the download instructions provided for each browser.
Step 3: After you have installed SpyHunter, wait for it to update automatically.
Step 1: After the update process has finished, click on the ‘Malware/PC Scan’ tab. A new window will appear. Click on ‘Start Scan’.
Step 2: After SpyHunter has finished scanning your PC for any files of the associated threat and found them, you can try to get them removed automatically and permanently by clicking on the ‘Next’ button.
Step 3: If any threats have been removed, it is highly recommended to restart your PC.
Back up your data to secure it against attacks in the future
IMPORTANT! Before reading the Windows backup instructions, we highly recommend to back up your data with a cloud backup solution and insure your files against any type of loss, even from the most severe threats. We recommend you to read more about it and to download SOS Online Backup.
Ventsislav has been covering the latest malware, software and newest tech developments at SensorsTechForum for 3 years now. He started out as a network administrator. Having graduated Marketing as well, Ventsislav also has passion for discovery of new shifts and innovations in cybersecurity that become game changers. After studying Value Chain Management and then Network Administration, he found his passion within cybersecrurity and is a strong believer in basic education of every user towards online safety.
Ventsislav has been covering the latest malware, software and newest tech developments at SensorsTechForum for 3 years now. He started out as a network administrator. Having graduated Marketing as well, Ventsislav also has passion for discovery of new shifts and innovations in cybersecurity that become game changers. After studying Value Chain Management and then Network Administration, he found his passion within cybersecrurity and is a strong believer in basic education of every user towards online safety.
This blog post has been created to explain what is driver.exe cryptocurrency miner Trojan and show how to remove it from your computer plus protect your PC against future infections as well.
1. For Windows XP, Vista and 7.
2. For Windows 8, 8.1 and 10.
Fix registry entries created by malware and PUPs on your PC.
1. Install SpyHunter to scan for driver.exe malware and remove them.
Back up your data to secure it from malware in the future.
