Remove CoinCube Miner (Free Instructions)

CoinCube – a malicious program that mines cryptocurrency illegally

Coincube miner website

CoinCube Miner is a malicious script that can be used on any website to mine cryptocurrency.^[1] The problem with this miner^[2] is that it is widely used by cyber criminals who spread it with the help of potentially unwanted programs (PUP) that redirect to compromised cryptocurrency mining websites.

Summary
Name	CoinCube
Type	Cryptocurrency miner
Distribution	FileTour adware and other potentially unwanted apps
Symptoms	Redirects to questionable websites, aggressive ads, some computer processes using lots of CPU
Affected browser	Google Chrome, but others might not be immune too
To uninstall CoinCube, install Fortect Intego and run a full system scan

In most cases, CoinCube virus spreads with the help of adware called FileTour. This type of PUP is designed to alter browser’s settings in order to redirect to compromised sites and display aggressive ads while you’re browsing the internet. Malware mostly targets Google Chrome; however, other browsers might be affected as well.

When CoinCube malware infiltrates the system, it creates a Windows autorun in order to force Chrome to redirect to mining website. This trick allows opening the browser in the background, meaning that you cannot see such activity. However, you can notice that browsing sessions became sluggish, browser constantly freezes or crashes.

However, the easiest way to spot CoinCube Miner is to open Windows Task Manager and look through running processes. The miner uses up to 100% computer’s CPU, so if you some of the processes eating up so much computer resources, it must be a miner.

The main danger here is that high CPU usage leads to computer overheat problem. Therefore, your PC or some parts of it (e.g., motherboard) might get physically damaged. Hence, it may lead to huge problems, such as data loss.

Therefore, if your laptop seems too hot than normal and fans are running like crazy, you should check the processes running on your PC. Typically, this miner hides under the name of CoinCube Miner2 or chrome.exe processes. Obviously, you have to stop them from running.

However, it’s not enough to stop them in order to remove CoinCube Miner. After the system reboot, the miner launches its activity again. Therefore, you need to find and uninstall adware and other PUPs that help the miner to do the job.

For full CoinCube removal, we highly recommend employing anti-malware program, like Fortect Intego. It’s the easiest way to find and identify potentially malicious apps and clean the system. After that, you can also reset the browser in order to make sure that adware-related components are gone for good.

Coincube virus example

Cryptocurrency miner might get into the machine unnoticed

As we have already told, redirects to mining website begin after infiltration of FileTour adware. This potentially unwanted app was noticed actively being spread in freeware and shareware bundles. This tricky software marketing method allows getting into computers unnoticed.

The majority of users do not pay proper attention to freeware installation procedure, a research team from Bedynet.ru^[3] say. Most of the people rely on Standard or Recommended settings to install the desired program quickly. However, these settings have some major issue.

Recommended setup does not reveal what additional programs are spreading in the same software package. Hence, unwanted apps can enter the system without your consent. Indeed, it seems an unfair activity, but it’s entirely legit.

However, you can protect yourself from PUPs and their negative features. All you need to do is to use Custom or Advanced installation settings, and carefully follow each of the steps. If there are any “additional downloads,” you should opt them out.

Terminate CoinCube virus and stop illegal mining activities

To remove CoinCube miner from the machine, you should not only stop suspicious processes running on the computer, but uninstall malware-related components from it too. We do not recommend doing it manually, because it is most likely to end up with a failure.

Such cyber threats are quite hard to locate, so you might overlook some of the malicious files or programs. For this reason, we highly recommend opting for automatic CoinCube Miner removal to make sure that your computer is cleaned properly.

Uninstall from Windows

Uninstall from Windows 10/8:

Type Control Panel into the Windows search box and open the result.
Under Programs, select Uninstall a program.

Uninstall from Windows 7/XP:

Click on Windows Start > Control Panel (Windows XP users should click on Add/Remove Programs).
In Control Panel, select Programs > Uninstall a program.

Remove the unwanted program:

In the Programs and Features window, look for any recently installed suspicious entries, select them, and click Uninstall.
If User Account Control appears, click Yes to confirm, then complete the removal.

Delete from macOS

Remove the unwanted application:

From the menu bar, select Go > Applications.
In the Applications folder, look for any suspicious entries, then drag them to Trash (or right-click and pick Move to Trash).

Delete leftover files and folders:

Select Go > Go to Folder.
Enter /Library/Application Support and remove any suspicious folders related to the unwanted program.
Repeat the same check in the /Library/LaunchAgents and /Library/LaunchDaemons folders, deleting any suspicious entries.
Finally, empty the Trash to permanently remove the leftovers.

Reset Internet Explorer

Remove dangerous add-ons:

Open Internet Explorer, click on the Gear icon (IE menu) on the top-right corner of the browser
Pick Manage Add-ons.
You will see a Manage Add-ons window. Here, look for suspicious plugins. Click on these entries and select Disable.

Change your homepage if it was altered:

Open IE and click on the Gear icon.
Select Internet Options.
In the General tab, delete the Home page address and replace it by your preferred one (for example, Google.com).
Click Apply and then select OK.

Delete temporary files:

Press on the Gear icon and select Internet Options.
Under Browsing history, click Delete...
Select relevant fields and press Delete.

Reset Internet Explorer:

Click on Gear icon > Internet options and select Advanced tab.
Select Reset.
In the new window, check Delete personal settings and select Reset.

Remove from Microsoft Edge

Delete unwanted extensions from MS Edge:

Select Menu (three horizontal dots at the top-right of the browser window) and pick Extensions.
From the list, pick the extension and click on the Gear icon.
Click Remove.

Clear cookies and other browser data:

Click on the Menu (three horizontal dots at the top-right of the browser window) and select Settings > Privacy, search, and services..
Under Clear browsing data, pick Choose what to clear.
Select Cookies and other site data and Cached images and files. (apart from passwords, although you might want to include Media licenses as well, if applicable) and click on Clear.

Restore new tab and homepage settings:

Click the menu icon and choose Settings.
Then find On startup section.
Click Remove next to any suspicious startup page.

Reset MS Edge if the above steps did not work:

Press on Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager.
Click on More details arrow at the bottom of the window.
Select Details tab.
Now scroll down and locate every entry with Microsoft Edge name in it. Right-click on each of them and select End Task to stop MS Edge from running.

Instructions for Chromium-based Edge

Delete extensions from MS Edge (Chromium):

Open Edge and click select Settings > Extensions.
Delete unwanted extensions by clicking Remove.

Clear cache and site data:

Click on Menu and go to Settings.
Select Privacy, search and services.
Under Clear browsing data, pick Choose what to clear.
Under Time range, pick All time.
Select Clear now.

Reset Chromium-based MS Edge:

Click on Menu and select Settings.
On the left side, pick Reset settings.
Select Restore settings to their default values.
Confirm with Reset.
This will disable extensions and reset startup pages but will not delete bookmarks, saved passwords, or browsing history.

Remove from Mozilla Firefox (FF)

Remove dangerous extensions:

Open Mozilla Firefox browser and click on the Menu (three horizontal lines at the top-right of the window).
Select Add-ons.
In here, select the unwanted extension and click Remove.

Reset the homepage:

Click three horizontal lines at the top right corner to open the menu.
Choose Settings.
Under Home, set your preferred homepage and new tab settings.

Clear cookies and site data:

Click Menu and pick Settings.
Go to Privacy & Security section.
Scroll down to locate Cookies and Site Data.
Click on Clear Data...
Select Cookies and Site Data and Temporary cached files and pages, then click Clear.

Reset Mozilla Firefox

If clearing the browser as explained above did not help, reset Mozilla Firefox:

Open Mozilla Firefox browser and click the Menu.
Go to Help and then choose Troubleshooting Information.
Under Give Firefox a tune up section, click on Refresh Firefox...
Once the pop-up shows up, confirm the action by pressing on Refresh Firefox.

Remove from Google Chrome

Delete malicious extensions from Google Chrome:

Open Google Chrome, click on the Menu (three vertical dots at the top-right corner) and select More tools > Extensions.
In the newly opened window, you will see all the installed extensions. Uninstall all suspicious extensions related to the unwanted program by clicking Remove.

Clear cache and web data from Chrome:

Click on Menu and pick Settings.
Under Privacy and security, select Clear browsing data.
Select Browsing history, Cookies and other site data, as well as Cached images and files.
Click Clear data.

Change your homepage:

Click menu and choose Settings.
Look for a suspicious site in the On startup section.
Click on Open a specific or set of pages and click on three dots to find the Remove option.

Reset Google Chrome:

If the previous methods did not help you, reset Google Chrome to eliminate all the unwanted components:

Click on Menu and select Settings.
In the Settings, scroll down and click Advanced.
Scroll down and locate Reset and clean up section.
Now click Restore settings to their original defaults.
Confirm with Reset settings.

Delete from Safari

Remove dangerous extensions:

Open Safari, click Safari in the menu at the top-left of the screen, and select Preferences.
Go to the Extensions tab, look for any suspicious entries, and click Uninstall to remove them.

Clear history and website data:

Click Safari in the menu and pick Clear History.
Set Clear to all history and confirm with Clear History.

Reset Safari:

Click Safari in the menu and select Preferences > Advanced.
Enable Show Develop menu in menu bar.
From the menu bar, click Develop and select Empty Caches.

How to remove CoinCube Miner

CoinCube – a malicious program that mines cryptocurrency illegally

Cryptocurrency miner might get into the machine unnoticed