Notepad++ users take note: It's time to check if you're hacked

China-based espionage group compromised Notepad++ for six months

A China-based threat group operating for almost two decades broke into the internal systems of Notepad++, an extremely popular open source-code editor, to spy on a select group of targeted users, researchers at Rapid7 said Monday. Don Ho, the author and maintainer of the open-source tool, said independent security researchers confirmed a China state-sponsored group compromised Notepad++’s server for a six-month period starting in June 2025. Ho, …

Notepad++ updates got hijacked for months and could have spied for China

Users of the text and code editor Notepad++ may have unknowingly downloaded a malicious update for the app after its shared hosting servers were hijacked last year. On Monday, the app's developer, Don Ho, posted an update on the attack with more details, including that the hackers were "likely a Chinese state-sponsored group" and that the app's servers were vulnerable for roughly six months from June through December 2nd, 2025. The post explains…

Notepad++ users take note: It's time to check if you're hacked

Infrastructure delivering updates for Notepad++—a widely used text editor for Windows—was compromised for six months by suspected China-state hackers who used their control to deliver backdoored versions of the app to select targets, developers said Monday. “I deeply apologize to all users affected by this hijacking,” the author of a post published to the official notepad-plus-plus.org site wrote Monday. The post said that the attack began last …

Notepad++ says Chinese government hackers hijacked its software updates for months

The developer of the popular text editor Notepad++ said hackers associated with the Chinese government hijacked its software update mechanism to deliver tainted software to users for months.

PSA: Update Notepad++ to version 8.9.1 after security incident

Notepad++ reports that attackers compromised its former ISP in 2025 and redirected app update traffic to malicious servers without exploiting the editor's code itself – an incident we reported last month. The project has since migrated to a new host and strengthened update verification. Users must manually update to Notepad++ 8.9.1 to receive the latest security fixes.Read Entire Article

Chinese Hackers Hit Notepad++ to Serve Malicious Update

The program is a free text and code editor that's been downloaded millions of times. The compromise began in June and is likely to have involved a Chinese state-sponsored group.