Unauthorized Background Cryptocurrency Miner (High CPU/GPU)

What is HIGH_CPU_CRYPTOMINER?

This diagnosis identifies background mining scripts or binaries running under spoofed system process names (e.g. lsass.exe, svchost.exe), causing high CPU/GPU resource utilization, thermal throttling, and severe system slowdown.

Common Causes

• Malicious utility bundles or drive-by scripts from unverified websites.
• Compromised web browser extensions running background script loops.

Step-by-Step Fix Guide

• 1
  Check Task Manager for unusually high-utilization processes executing from Temp or AppData directories.
• 2
  Terminate suspicious processes using Taskkill or Resource Monitor.
• 3
  Download and execute a full clean scan using Microsoft Safety Scanner (MSERT).

Commands & Diagnostics