Fake ChatGPT, Claude apps spread malware via signed AI binaries

Publisher excerpt From CSO Online

Attackers are distributing malware through fake ChatGPT and Claude desktop applications, using legitimate, digitally signed executables from OpenAI and Anthropic to load malicious code onto victims’ Windows systems, according to Check Point Research. The campaign, tracked as Yoba, uses fake GitHub repositories and websites promoting purported AI applications, including “GPT-5.6 Sol,” “GPT-6 Astra” and “Claude Opus.” “These projects look convincing and use real GitHub infrastructure, which helps them appear legitimate to potential victims. The website exhibits search-targeted content and suspicious installer-delivery tactics consistent with an SEO-poisoning lure,” Check Point wrote in a blog post. The installers bundle genuine signed executables with malicious files that exploit DLL sideloading, a technique in which a legitimate application loads a malicious dynamic-link library, the post added. The researchers observed XMRig, a cryptocurrency miner, as the campaign’s final payload. But they warned that the loader can retrieve other Windows executables or PowerShell scripts, making the potential impact broader than cryptomining. “Future waves may deliver different malware families,” the researchers added in the post. The projects did not inflate stars or forks but still ranked among the top Google results, which the researchers attributed to SEO poisoning. Malicious releases were uploaded on August 30 and 31 and September 4, according to commit data in the post. Signed…

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