OSDSoft CPU Miner - How to remove

If your computer has become very sluggish out of the blue, if your CPU usage has skyrocketed, if an unfamiliar process is hogging all the resources — it could be that your computer has been infected by the OSDSoft CPU crypto miner.

To be profitable, crypto mining requires powerful hardware (remember the high GPU prices?). Some cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin and Ethereum, a now generally mined using special hardware. But there are still currencies that can viably use regular CPUs. One is Monero. Itself a legitimate cryptocurrency, it is, unfortunately, one of the most popular coins that cybercriminals mine by stealing people’s processing power using the OSDSoft miner.

How does the crypto miner work?

If you want to mine cryptocurrency yourself, you can download an XMRig miner and run it. You can even build a special machine for mining. If you are successful, you’ll earn some currency that will land in your wallet. Whether that profit is enough to offset the electricity and hardware bills is not guaranteed.

These are the expenses that some cybercriminals seek to avoid by offloading the mining expenses on any vulnerable computers. Your machine can have the OSDSoft CPU miner installed and used to generate some cryptocurrency, but you’ll never see the returns. Malicious crypto mining is a real danger, replacing ransomware as a way for cybercriminals to profit (our more detailed article about crypto mining).

Is the OSDSoft miner harmful?

Yes. This specific miner uses a lot of your CPU power. This can severely disrupt your work and possibly even harm the hardware.

• The computer runs very slowly.
• Due to a lack of available resources, your programs might not work properly.
• If the CPU is worked too hard, in theory, it could overheat and wear, shortening its lifespan.
• Your computer requires more electricity.

Additionally, it is very possible that if your computer is infected with one unwanted program, there are others lurking, including adware and spyware.

How is the miner spread?

The OSDSoft CPU miner is a Trojan that has reportedly been spread by fake Adobe Flash Player updates.

Some websites occasionally serve malicious ads. Some of these ads redirect you to a page that prompts the user to, for example, update their Adobe Flash Player. Except that in this case, the prompt is fake. Some cybercriminal has bundled the OSDSoft miner with the fake updater. The miner is installed and starts working in the background, generating profit for whoever is spreading this infection.

Be careful when downloading files from the Web. The download page should be the official one (watch out for misspellings in the url). Check the install options — make sure that there is no additional software bundled with the update or the installation. Be skeptical of scary warnings about your computer’s security. And be aware that, in the past, crypto miners have been bundled with pirated software.

How to remove the OSDSoft miner?

You can remove cryptocurrency miners with antivirus programs. Even though the miners are not inherently harmful, many antivirus programs will still warn the user about them. Scan your system and remove OSDSoft CPU miner, as well as any other malware it detects. You can also remove unwanted programs manually, but only do that if you know what you are doing.

Keep your machine protected by having a professional and reputable antivirus program installed (like Spyhunter, malwarebytes) and keep your operating system up-to-date. Some malware exploits operating system vulnerabilities.

Automatic Malware removal tools

How to remove OSDSoft CPU Miner using Windows Control Panel

Many hijackers and adware like OSDSoft Cryptominer install some of their components as regular Windows programs as well as additional software. This part of malware can be uninstalled from the Control Panel. To access it, do the following.

• Start→Control Panel (older Windows) or press Windows Key→Search and enter Control Panel and then press Enter (Windows 8, Windows 10).
• Choose Uninstall Program (if you don't see it, click in the upper right next to "View by" and select Category).
• Go through the list of programs and select entries related to OSDSoft CPU Miner . You can click on "Name" or "Installed On" to reorder your programs and make OSDSoft Cryptominer easier to find.
• Click the Uninstall button. If you're asked if you really want to remove the program, click Yes.
• In many cases anti-malware programs are better at detecting related parasites, thus I recommend installing Spyhunter to identify other programs that might be a part of this infection.