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

The developer of the popular open source text editor Notepad++ has confirmed that hackers hijacked the software to deliver malicious updates to users over the course of several months in 2025.

In a blog post published Monday, Notepad++ developer Don Ho said that the cyberattack was likely carried out by hackers associated with the Chinese government between June and December 2025, citing multiple analyses by security experts who examined the malware payloads and attack patterns. Ho said this “would explain the highly selective targeting” seen during the campaign.

  • WesternInfidels@feddit.onlineEnglish
    3·
    1 day ago

    Traffic from certain targeted users was selectively redirected to attacker-controlled malicious update manifests.

    I don’t want to sound dismissive, but at the same time, if you’re wondering, “Does this affect me and my computer?” the answer is almost certainly “no.” It’s scary anyway.

    I would have guessed NPP had an option to disable check-for-updates every time it starts, but I couldn’t find one.

    • Hobo@lemmy.world
      2·
      15 hours ago

      Yeah it does. It’s in Settings > Preferences > Misc. There’s a dropdown to disable automatic updates.

      • WesternInfidels@feddit.onlineEnglish
        1·
        14 hours ago

        Thanks, yes, I’ve got “Auto-updater” set to “disable,” but NPP still checks in with the mothership when it starts, and notifies the user when updates are available.

        • Lka1988@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          1·
          4 hours ago

          There should be a way to disable that. I swear I’ve disabled it before, but I don’t run Windows anymore, so I can’t check it.