How to remove Zephyr Miner

What is Zephyr Miner

Zephyr Miner is a sophisticated piece of malware classified as a cryptocurrency miner. It is specifically designed to mine the Zephyr (ZEPH) cryptocurrency, exploiting the resources of infected systems to generate profit for cybercriminals. This malware is notorious for its anti-detection capabilities, often adding itself to the exclusion list of Microsoft Defender Antivirus to avoid detection. Additionally, Zephyr Miner employs persistence mechanisms, such as configuring itself as a scheduled task, ensuring it remains active even after system reboots. Infiltration methods commonly involve batch files, VBScript, PowerShell scripts, or Portable Executable files, which can be distributed through phishing emails, malicious advertisements, and fake software cracks. Once active, it uses up to 50% of the CPU, significantly degrading system performance and potentially leading to overheating and hardware damage. Beyond performance issues, the presence of Zephyr Miner can result in privacy concerns and financial losses, as it may expose systems to further exploits by maintaining a foothold in compromised networks.

How Zephyr Miner infected your system

Zephyr Miner is a sophisticated piece of cryptocurrency-mining malware that stealthily infiltrates computers through various distribution methods, utilizing phishing and social engineering techniques. It often disguises itself as or bundles with seemingly legitimate software, tricking users into downloading and executing infected files. These files can be in the form of executable programs, malicious email attachments, or compromised software updates. Once executed, Zephyr Miner initiates its infection chain using batch files, VBScript, PowerShell scripts, or portable executable files to gain a foothold on the system. It ensures persistence by adding itself to system startup tasks and even manipulates security software such as Microsoft Defender Antivirus to avoid detection. This malware exploits system resources to mine Zephyr (ZEPH) cryptocurrency, severely degrading system performance and potentially causing hardware damage due to excessive resource usage.

1. Download Zephyr Miner Removal Tool
2. Use Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool to remove Zephyr Miner
3. Use Autoruns to remove Zephyr Miner
4. Files, folders and registry keys of Zephyr Miner
5. Other aliases of Zephyr Miner
6. How to protect from threats, like Zephyr Miner

Remove Zephyr Miner manually

Manual removal of Zephyr Miner by inexperienced users may become a difficult task because it does not create entries in Add/Remove Programs under Control Panel, does not install browser extensions, and uses random file names. However, there are pre-installed instruments in the Windows system, that allow you to detect and remove malware without using third-party applications. One of them is Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool. It comes with Windows Update in Windows 11, 10, 8. 8.1. For older operating system you can download it here: 64-bit version | 32-bit version.

Remove Zephyr Miner using Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool

1. Type mrt in the search box near Start Menu.
2. Run mrt clicking on found item.
3. Click Next button.
4. Choose one of the scan modes Quick scan, Full scan, Customize scan (Full scan recommended).
5. Click Next button.
6. Click on View detailed results of the scan link to view the scan details.
7. Click Finish button.

Remove Zephyr Miner using Autoruns

Zephyr Miner often sets up to run at Windows startup as an Autorun entry or Scheduled task.

1. Download Autoruns using this link.
2. Extract the archive and run Autoruns.exe file.
3. In Options menu make sure there are checkboxes near Hide Empty Locations, Hide Microsoft Entries, and Hide Windows Entries.
4. Search for suspicious entries with weird names or running from locations like: C:\{username}\AppData\Roaming.
5. Right-click on suspicious entry and choose Delete. This will prevent the threat to run at startup.
6. Switch to Scheduled Tasks tab and do the same.
7. To remove files themselves, click on suspicious entries and choose Jump to Entry…. Remove files or registry keys found.

Remove files, folder and registry keys of Zephyr Miner

Zephyr Miner files and folders


{randomname}.exe


Zephyr Miner registry keys


no information


Aliases of Zephyr Miner

How to protect from threats, like Zephyr Miner, in future

Standard Windows protection or any decent third-party antivirus (Norton, Avast, Kaspersky) should be able to detect and remove Zephyr Miner. However, if you got infected with Zephyr Miner with existing and updated security software, you may consider changing it. To feel safe and protect your PC from Zephyr Miner on all levels (browser, e-mail attachments, Word or Excel scripts, file system) we recommend a leading provider of internet security solutions – BitDefender. Its solutions both for home and business users proved to be one of the most advanced and effective. Choose and get your BitDefender protection via the button below:

Download BitDefender