Comment on Notepad++ Hijacked by State-Sponsored Hackers
MolochHorridus@lemmy.ml 15 hours ago
So should we at least uninstall our current Notepad++ and then download a new version? What else should we do, the post really doesn’t offer any advice.
I don’t think you’ll need to uninstall. If I’m reading the article correctly, it looks like they plugged the hole in their update process by switching hosting providers to one that’s even more hardened and secure. So requests from the updater should go to the correct place now and not the state-sponsored hacker.
Then in about a month, the next version of notepad++ that is released will also properly validate/verify any downloaded update files from the server.
The article literally states that should you download the latest version from their site directly and then use the installer to update manually. Who knows if those who were effected already could have something else compromising the update/install process. I wouldnt update from the built in updater until the new fix with certificate and signature verification is released.
Yes, that’s the safe way. Uninstall, download current version, install. That’s it.
Outside of being compromised already where you would have to notice and fix outside of notepad anyway. But that seems unlikely given the selective attack nature the hoster was able to confirm.
I would just follow their advice, download the newest version from their site directly and use the new versions installer to update manually. I would probably do the same thing when the newest version with certificate and signature verification releases, after that I would assume you should be good to go. However its probably also worth scanning your system for malware just incase you updated during the time frame the attack was live.
Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 14 hours ago
In the old post from when the update was released a Heise article is linked, that contains indicators of compromise, and in turn links to Kevin Beaumont for the details of his analysis:
lemmy.zip/post/54712916
heise.de/…/Notepad-updater-installed-malware-1110…
doublepulsar.com/small-numbers-of-notepad-users-r…