Fake ChatGPT, Claude apps spread malware via signed AI binaries

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.

First reported by CSO Online. This page is a short excerpt; the full text is theirs.