Skip to content
NewA calmer, faster ZeroHour
Malwarehigh

Fake Claude downloads on claude.ai and Google Ads push stealers

Original title: Hackers Abuse Claude’s Official Website and Google Ads to Spread Malware

Cyber Security Newsby Tushar Subhra Dutta ()4 min read1
Read at cybersecuritynews.com
Part of a story covered by 2 sourcesFake Claude.ai pages and Google Ads spread macOS and Windows stealersMerged summary & timeline
AI summary · x-ai/grok-4.7Summaries by Vani AI

Mac users who paste the ClickFix command get Atomic macOS Stealer; a separate Windows lure delivers an encrypted .NET payload.

Gen Digital says attackers hosted fake Claude download instructions as user-generated Shared Chats and Artifacts on claude.ai and paid for Google Ads so the pages ranked in search. The macOS lure asks visitors to paste a Terminal command that installs Atomic macOS Stealer, which steals passwords, browser sessions, and wallets and can swap in modified Ledger and Trezor apps that request recovery phrases. A second campaign targets Windows with a PowerShell ClickFix sequence that fetches an encrypted .NET payload with remote-access behavior. Anthropic did not publish the instructions; its real download page is claude.com/download.

Unconfirmed: Campaign details and indicators come from Gen Digital’s report; Anthropic’s response is not stated.

Key facts
  • Gen Digital published the research on October 26, 2026.
  • Malicious links carried Google Ads parameters gclid and gad_campaignid.
  • The Windows stage was fetched from GitHub and a github.io page.
  • The .NET payload checks antivirus, takes screenshots, and searches crypto wallets.
  • AMOS looks for files such as .wallet, .seed, .pem, and .ovpn.
Security assessment · AI, from the article

Impact: Steals passwords, sessions, wallets, and recovery phrases

What to do
  1. 1.Use claude.com/download or a bookmark; do not paste commands from shared Claude pages.
  2. 2.If a command was run, reset passwords from a clean device and move crypto to a new wallet.
  3. 3.Do not enter a recovery phrase into software that asks for it unexpectedly.
Analyze this story with Vani AIImpact, who is affected and what defenders should do, in a new chat
ATT&CK
T1583.008 MalvertisingT1204.004 Malicious Copy and PasteT1059.001 PowerShellT1059.004 Unix Shell
Tags
claudeamosclickfixmalvertisingmacosinfostealer
Vendors
Anthropic
Products
ClaudeLedger LiveTrezor Suite
Malware
Atomic macOS StealerAMOS
Organizations
Gen DigitalGoogle

Indicators of compromise

auto-extracted · verify before use · export allAll
TypeIndicatorContext
domainclaude.airs of compromise (IoCs):- Type Indicator Description Domain claude[.]ai Anthropic’s real domain abused to host fake Artifact and

From the original article

4 min read at cybersecuritynews.com

Cybercriminals found a simple way to make a fake download page look trustworthy. Instead of registering a lookalike domain, they placed their lure on claude. ai, the official website of Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI assistant.

Cyber Security News

By Tushar Subhra Dutta · cybersecuritynews.com

Read the full article at Cyber Security News

A short excerpt; the article and its images belong to the publisher. Summary, key facts and assessment above are AI-written from the article and can be wrong.