PC Pitstop is the undisputed leader in PC diagnostics. Our running process library is culled from our database of over 100 million PC diagnostics and scans.

Tip from the PitCrew

Every process running on your computer takes up CPU cycles and valuable memory. For optimal PC performance and resource utilization, you should be aware of every process on your computer. PC Pitstop designed this process library to help you know which processes are worthwhile and others that slow system performance.

Furthermore, perhaps the quickest and most straight forward method to detect malware is through a running process analysis.

Process Library

  
PC Pitstop Libraries > Process Library > hsssrv.exe

hsssrv.exe (Hotspot Shield Helper Service)

Percentage of recently scanned PC's with this process running: 0.05%
Average CPU use for this program: 0%
Average RAM for this program: 7 MB

PC Pitstop Analysis

HijackThis:

O23 - Service: Hotspot Shield Helper Service (HssSrv) - AnchorFree Inc. - C:\Program Files\Hotspot Shield\HssWPR\hsssrv.exe

Hotspot Shield installs a Service in each of your Network Card. According to Hotspot Shield:

Hotspot Shield creates a virtual private network (VPN) between your laptop or iPhone and our Internet gateway.

Recommendation

Win Patrol

hsssrv.exe is required by third-party software or hardware and should not disabled.

PC Pitstop recommends WinPatrol Plus for monitoring all of the background activity on your PC. WinPatrol Plus provides a easy to understand descriptions of over 15,000 processes and programs.


Identification

In addition to the file name, hsssrv.exe, the following version information is used to identify the file. If the file does not match this information, it may be a different file. To ensure the file is absolutely correct, run a free and comprehensive scan.

Vendor contains:AnchorFree Inc.
Product contains:Hotspot Shield Helper Service
File name contains:\Hotspot Shield\

To view version information with Windows Explorer, right-click the file and click Properties, Version.

MD5 Hashes

MD5 hashes is the way that computers can define the uniqueness of a file. Anti malware vendors frequently use this technique to detect and clean malware. It is common for a program to have multiple MD5 hashes as the developers create newer versions of the program. For the program called hsssrv.exe, we have detected 8 different MD5 hashes. Click on a hash to research the hash in Google.
MD5 Report Summary
Program NameMD5 Count
hsssrv.exe8
#MD5Size
10x8b337dd9e3e3b40b315e7c3310c0d0fc93656 bytes
20x233f5684f30cd05d93b5b36749b13871216552 bytes
30x7f8653d153bd55abb27a6467c0e8bf79117208 bytes
40x7ac6cf18358a7d14b654ce002e1611cb364008 bytes
50x0f31e3fa34ec2c767634689e6e0a3114328752 bytes
60xee5663c9317101c5d34cff9ec8a4f4ad331312 bytes
70x64e85c3060c776da357e31af15f4515f400944 bytes
80xd5687c8c02df0eb4687b044a10df5cb4331824 bytes

PC Pitstop Database Comparisons

Every week, we update our information about the running programs identified during the previous week's testing. hsssrv.exe (Hotspot Shield Helper Service) has been seen on 0.05% of systems tested at PC Pitstop. As a point of comparison, it is rare for a particular malicious program (virus or spyware) to be seen on more than one or two percent of all systems tested. The average RAM memory usage for this process was 7 MB. The average CPU load for this program was 0%.

Vendor or Distributor's Web Site

http://hotspotshield.com/

Important note: A file name alone may not be enough for positive identification. PC Pitstop's Overdrive tests and spyware scan use information such as the company name, product name, or install directory. If you are unable to identify a file, ask about it in our forums after running our full tests.