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Google Ads push fake Claude downloads on claude.ai that install stealers

Original title: Hackers Use Google Ads to Push Fake Claude Downloads Hosted on Real Claude.ai Domain

GBHackersby Mayura Kathir ()3 min read1
Read at gbhackers.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

macOS ClickFix commands fetch Atomic macOS Stealer; a Windows Artifact runs a packed .NET payload with remote access.

Gen Digital says attackers buy Google Ads for fake Claude download pages hosted on Anthropic’s claude.ai domain through Shared Chats and public Artifacts, without compromising Anthropic. The real desktop download page is claude.com/download. The macOS lure asks visitors to paste an obfuscated Terminal command that leads to Atomic macOS Stealer, which steals browser data, Keychain material, documents, and wallet data and can replace Ledger or Trezor apps. A Windows Artifact uses Win+R and PowerShell to fetch an encrypted .NET payload that injects into a Windows process and looks for crypto wallets.

Key facts
  • Fraudulent pages use claude.ai/share/ and claude.ai/artifact/ paths and mimic Claude branding.
  • Researchers found gclid and gad_campaignid parameters and links to two ad campaigns.
  • Without Full Disk Access, AMOS shows a misleading prompt and hooks a shell startup file.
  • A fake macOS password dialog repeats until the victim enters a valid login password.
  • Wallet restore prompts can send recovery phrases to a separate collection server.
Security assessment · AI, from the article

Impact: Stolen credentials, sessions, documents, and cryptocurrency wallet recovery phrases

What to do
  1. 1.Download Claude only from claude.com/download, not shared chats or Artifacts.
  2. 2.Do not run commands copied from ad-linked install prompts.
  3. 3.If a command was run, revoke sessions, reset credentials from a clean device, and replace exposed wallet phrases.
Analyze this story with Vani AIImpact, who is affected and what defenders should do, in a new chat
ATT&CK
T1204 User ExecutionT1059.004 Unix ShellT1059.001 PowerShellT1555.001 Keychain
Tags
claudemalvertisingclickfixamoscryptocurrencygoogle-ads
Vendors
AnthropicGoogle
Malware
Atomic macOS Stealer
Organizations
Gen Digital
AI models
Claude

Indicators of compromise

auto-extracted · verify before use · export allAll
TypeIndicatorContext
domainclaude.aifake Claude download pages hosted on Anthropic’s legitimate claude.ai domain, exploiting content-sharing features to distribute m

From the original article

3 min read at gbhackers.com

Hackers are buying Google Ads to promote fake Claude download pages hosted on Anthropic’s legitimate claude. ai domain, exploiting content-sharing features to distribute malware. The operation does not require compromising Anthropic’s infrastructure.

GBHackers

By Mayura Kathir · gbhackers.com

Read the full article at GBHackers

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.