US EditionCPUID Hijacked to Serve Malware as HWMonitor Downloads
Researchers said the poisoned download chain served trojanized installers for hours before CPUID fixed the breach.
- CPUID confirmed a backend breach this week when attackers compromised a secondary API, redirecting downloads for CPU-Z and HWMonitor to malicious versions before the company fixed the issue.
- Attackers hijacked a backend component to redirect download traffic to Cloudflare storage, allowing hackers to swap legitimate installers for trojanized versions without tampering with the signed software builds themselves.
- Malicious installers, often named "HWiNFO_Monitor_Setup.exe," were flagged by 20 AVs on VirusTotal; analysis suggests the malware targeted 64-bit users and included a fake CRYPTBASE to blend into Windows.
- Researchers identified the payload as an infostealer, potentially classified as Artemis Trojan or Tedy Trojan, which interacts with Google Chrome to access stored credentials and mirrors tactics used against FileZilla recently.
- Investigations remain ongoing regarding how the API was accessed; this incident underscores that attackers can deliver malware by exploiting distribution infrastructure rather than touching the source code itself.
16 Articles
16 Articles
Cybercriminals have infected the website of CPUID, the creators of the popular CPU-Z and HWMonitor programs. As a result, both tools have become hosts of dangerous malware. CPU-Z and HWMonitor infected by hackers. Bad news for anyone using the HWMonitor temperature and voltage monitoring program and the CPU-Z application, often used by testers and overclockers. According to user X, nicknamed vx-underground, scammers have attacked the CPUID websi…
CPUID, a company that distributes software for benchmarking and monitoring Windows and Android devices, has been hacked, and malware was found to have been embedded in its CPU-Z software, which retrieves and displays CPU information on devices, and HWMonitor, which monitors hardware. CPUID has acknowledged that the breach lasted for approximately six hours, but has reported that the issue has been fixed.
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