This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
This is why I don't update things that don't need updates. Untill I switched to Linux I had been using the same version for like a decade.
Also I'd imagine the American government is doing the exact same shit. Or rather Israel is doing it in behalf of the American government
If I recall correctly this is the second time this has happened to N++. Fool me once… can’t get fooled again.
Three times++, actually. The second attack was documented to have resumed after the third, with different payload URLs.
I think I was remembering the CIA Wikileaks one which was a compromised DLL.
I've kind of stopped following things up since I left windows, but maybe you're remembering when this actually happened a while ago? This is just some in-progress post-mortem report.
China, Russia, the US, fucking Israel. They all piss me off so fucking much. Can't we live in a sane world just for a single fucking day?
And work bosses saw a news story on this and banned the app outright :( can anyone suggest a replacement that is not paid and has features useful for searching lots of large logs files quickly for keywords?
Kate
+1 for Kate. I think its ment to be an acronym for KDE Advanced text editor but its a linux program that feels very close to notepad++ and will handle large files with gusto
Rename the shortcut to notepad++2?
VSCodium.
Notepad++ installed from any package manager was perfectly fine and safe.
Well those would have included the update checker. So if you installed from a package manager, then let it update when prompted for the new version, you could still have been at risk.
I don't know how most package managers on windows work, but usually, auto updates are disabled by default for software that comes from one. For example, Firefox installed using APT on various linux distro will not auto-update out of it.
I vaguely remember chocolatey packages not really doing that, causing mismatch between installed versions and its internal database, though, so maybe it wasn't that good of a solution.
Emacs
Emacs
He’s asking for a text editor, not to join a cult. /s
Oof. Kudos to Notepad++ for being up front with the details.
Yikes... i guess i am confused though. What data was being sent through this channel? What did they get from people while it happened and why did it take 2 months past them stopping it to finally make a release? I love the app, but this sounds really bad.
From my understanding: Basically the attackers could reply to your version check request (usually done automatically) and tell N++ that there were a new version available. If you then approved the update dialogue, N++ would download and execute the binary from the update link that the server sent you. But this didn't necessarily need to be a real update, it could have been any binary since neither the answer to the update check nor the download link were verified by N++
The software itself, and the devs, have little to nothing to do with this besides detecting the issue. Which was not obvious, since (it seems) the attack was targeted at specific IPs/hosts/places. It likely worked transparently without alteration for most users, probably including the devs themselves.
It also would only affects updates through the built-in updater; if you disabled that, and/or installed through some package managers, you would not have been affected.
A disturbing situation indeed. I assume some update regarding having adequately digitally signed updates were done (at least, I hope… I don't really use N++ anymore). But the reality is, some central infrastructure are vulnerable to people with a lot of resources, and actually plugging those holes requires a bit of involvement from the users, depending how far one would go. Even if everything's signed, you have to either know the signatory's public key beforehand or get a certificate that you trust. And that trust is derived from an authority you trust (either automatically through common CA lists, or because you manually added it to your system). And these authorities themselves can become a weak point when a state actor butts in, meaning the only good solution is double checking those certificates with the actual source, and actually blocking everything when they change, which is somewhat tedious… and so on and so on.
Of course, some people do that; when security matters a LOT. But for most people, basic measures should be enough… usually.
The previous release already fixed this, or evaded the issue.
The channel was the update mechanism. Upon Notepad++ checking for updates, they were able to inject their own. So if you updated via the apps own update checker they could have misdirected you into installing something else or something modified.
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.
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:
https://lemmy.zip/post/54712916
https://www.heise.de/en/news/Notepad-updater-installed-malware-11109726.html
https://doublepulsar.com/small-numbers-of-notepad-users-reporting-security-woes-371d7a3fd2d9
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.
You could also just disable the checks for updates from within the application too. Or better yet, use something like winget to handle the updates instead of the built-in updater.
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.
I would like to know starting from wich version should i be concerned. I haven't updated in a while i think.
The timeline says the attack started in June of 2025 and continued through Dec 2, 2025. If you installed, updated, or silently updated during that period you may have been targeted / compromised.
So what malware got shipped?
