HPDriver.exe Monero Miner Virus – How to Remove It Fully (100% CPU)

This article has been created in order to explain what is the HPDriver.exe process, why is it taking 100% of your CPU and how to remove this miner malware from your computer plus stop it from mining the cryptocurrency Monero.

Cryptocurrency miners have become very popular lately and they use the same techniques that made ransomware viruses hit the news big time. One such cryptocurrency miner is the HPDriver.exe malware which according to researchers aim to pretend to be a driver for HP, but has a dark side to it as well. The malware aims to use the GPU and CPU resources of up to 100% in order to mine for the cryptocurrency Monero, which many of you may know, is anonymous. The malware also aims to perform other malicious activities on the computers it infects, so if you see the process HPDriver.exe running on your computer, we recommend that you read the following article and learn how to remove this virus from your PC.

Threat Summary

Name	HPDriver.exe Malware
Type	CryptoCurrency Miner Trojan / Malware
Short Description	It aims to mine for the cryptocurrency Monero at the expense of your computer’s resources..
Symptoms	Your PC may begin to stagger and even become non-responsive at times. 100% of your CPU may be used by the process HPDriver.exe running actively in the background.
Distribution Method	Via fake setups or malicious e-mail spam messages.
Detection Tool	See If Your System Has Been Affected by HPDriver.exe Malware Download Malware Removal Tool
User Experience	Join Our Forum to Discuss HPDriver.exe Malware.

HPDriver.exe Miner – How Does It Infect

The methods of propagation used by the hackers who are behind this miner malware may be more than one, but the primary one is believed to be sending direct e-mails to victims, that may contain malicious e-email attachments. These e-mails may perform various different types of deceptive techniques and pretend to be legitimate ones. In addition to this, the e-mails may also contain malicious web links. Here is one example of a cleverly designed e-mail, which aims to get the victim to download the infection file, believing it is a legitimate document:

In addition to via e-mails, you may also be exposed by this malware by downloading a fake program from a suspicious website. Since this malware aims to imitate a key driver for your computer, you may want to check if you have googled any driver installers for your computer recently, since some malware infection files may be spread as fake installers of drivers. Besides fake setups, other means of replication may also include spreading the virus via a fake game patch, crack, key generator and other form of a seemingly legitimate file.

HPDriver.exe Monero Miner Trojan – How Does It Work

The end goal of the HPDriver.exe infection is to generate Monero tokens at the expense of your computer’s memory. The malware aims to perform various different activities that are malicious in addition to that as well. The first action of the virus is to either download or extract the HPDriver.exe process in the %Temp% folder of Windows and automatically launch the file.

The virus may also perform other tasks that make the process run automatically on your computer, such as:

• Create scheduled tasks.
• Create mutants.
• Touch Windows system files.
• Add registry entries in the Run and RunOnce Windows Sub-keys in order to make it run automatically when you login.

The miner process HPDriver.exe begins it’s miner activity after being launched on your computer. This activity involves primarily connecting to a remote mining pool and linking your IP address to the wallet of the cyber-criminal. A mining pool is a virtual place where miners form all over the world conjoin their efforts to mine for cryptocurrencies, hence increase their mining profitability this way. This procedure results in rewards of tokens from the cryptocurrency mined, sent to their wallets. The process of mining is similar to what the graphic below displays:

However, in the case of HPDriver.exe, you are not aware of that and while your computer begins overheating and struggling to cope with simple tasks such as opening programs and so on, Monero tokens are credited to the wallets of the cyber-criminals and they become richer and richer with the increasing number of computers they infect running for an increasing timespan. So if your PC has this process running, it is imperative that you immediately stop it from Windows Task Manager.

In addition to being a cryptocurrency miner, the HPDriver.exe is malware, after all. This means that it may also perform other activities, which most Trojans like itself have the capability of doing. These activities are often to:

• Steal passwords and logins from your computer.
• Obtain keystrokes as you type them.
• Steal files directly from your computer system.

These reasons and the fact that if the miner malware remains for longer periods of time on your computer may break some of it’s components are more than enough to remove this malware as fast as possible from your PC.

Remove HPDriver.exe Miner from Your PC

In order to make sure that the HPDriver.exe is fully gone from your computer system, we advise you to follow the removal instructions underneath this article. They are created in order to help you delete the malicious files and objects, belonging to the HPDriver.exe miner Trojan either manually or automatically. In addition to this, be advised that if you lack the experience in removing malware, recommendations by security professionals are to remove this miner automatically with the aid of an advanced anti-malware software, which will make sure that the virus files and objects and any related files are fully gone from your computer and it remains protected against all intrusive threats in the future as well.

Manually delete HPDriver.exe Malware from your computer

Note! Substantial notification about the HPDriver.exe Malware threat: Manual removal of HPDriver.exe Malware requires interference with system files and registries. Thus, it can cause damage to your PC. Even if your computer skills are not at a professional level, don’t worry. You can do the removal yourself just in 5 minutes, using a malware removal tool.

1. Boot Your PC In Safe Mode to isolate and remove HPDriver.exe Malware files and objects

Boot Your PC Into Safe Mode

1. For Windows 7,XP and Vista. 2. For Windows 8, 8.1 and 10. Fix registry entries created by HPDriver.exe Malware on your PC.

For Windows XP, Vista, 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 the Start Menu

Step 2: Whilst holding down Shift button, click on Power and then click on Restart.
Step 3: After reboot, the aftermentioned menu will appear. From there you should choose Troubleshoot.

Step 4: You will see the Troubleshoot menu. From this menu you can choose Advanced Options.

Step 5: After the Advanced Options menu appears, click on Startup Settings.

Step 6: Click on Restart.

Step 7: A menu will appear upon reboot. You should choose Safe Mode by pressing its corresponding number and the machine will restart.

Some malicious scripts may modify the registry entries of your computer to change different settings. This is why manual clean up of your Windows Registry Database is strongly recommended. Since the tutorial on how to do this is a bit lenghty, we recommend following our instructive article about fixing registry entries.

2.Find malicious files created by HPDriver.exe Malware on your PC

Find malicious files created by HPDriver.exe Malware

1. For Windows 8, 8.1 and 10. 2. For Windows 7,XP and Vista.

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.

Automatically remove HPDriver.exe Malware by downloading an advanced anti-malware program

1. Remove HPDriver.exe Malware with SpyHunter Anti-Malware Tool and back up your data

Remove HPDriver.exe Malware with SpyHunter Anti-Malware Tool

1. Install SpyHunter to scan for and remove HPDriver.exe Malware.2. Scan with SpyHunter to Detect and Remove HPDriver.exe Malware. Back up your data to secure it against infections and file encryption by HPDriver.exe Malware in the future.

Step 1:Click on the “Download” button to proceed to SpyHunter’s download page.

Download

Malware Removal Tool

It is highly 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.

Step 2: Guide yourself by the download instructions provided for each browser.
Step 3: After you have installed SpyHunter, wait for it to automatically update.

Step1: After the update process has finished, click on the ‘Scan Computer Now’ button.

Step2: After SpyHunter has finished scanning your PC for any HPDriver.exe Malware files, click on the ‘Fix Threats’ button to remove them automatically and permanently.

Step3: Once the intrusions on your PC have been removed, it is highly recommended to restart it.

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 automatically with cloud backup and insure it against any type of data loss on your device, even the most severe. We recommend reading more about and downloading SOS Online Backup .

SOS Online Backup

Vencislav Krustev

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.

More Posts - Website