A ClickFix campaign uses trusted-looking search ads and fake Claude installers to deliver malware through Terminal commands. GajIPS detects the redirect chain and malicious download activity
Severity: High | Priority: 2
In this attack, the attackers buy Google search ads for searches such as “claude mac”. The ad’s destination is a genuine Bing click-tracking link, so the ad shows the trusted bing.com domain and gets past ad-review checks. Clicking it takes the visitor through Bing to a compromised legitimate website, which forwards them to a convincing fake Claude download page. Both the compromised site and the fake page check where the visitor came from, and anyone arriving directly, including most security scanners, gets an error page instead. This lets the attack stay hidden from automated analysis.
The fake page displays Anthropic’s real installation command, but its copy button places a different command on the clipboard. When the user pastes that command into Terminal, it shows a message claiming to download Claude from Anthropic’s website. In reality, it decodes a hidden address, downloads a script from an attacker-controlled server and runs it immediately. The user sees nothing unusual. ClickFix attacks on macOS usually install information-stealing malware that takes saved passwords, browser sessions, Keychain data and cryptocurrency wallets.
If GajIPS detects this campaign in your network, identify the Mac and its user. Ask the user whether they pasted and ran an installation command in Terminal from a Claude download page. If they did, or if the alert shows the second-stage script was downloaded, treat the Mac as compromised:
If the user only visited the page and did not run the command, no further action is needed beyond reminding them how the attack works.
Remind staff to download software only by typing the vendor’s official website address, not by clicking search ads. Staff should never paste installation commands from websites into Terminal without checking them. The genuine Claude desktop app is available from claude.ai. Because these ads point to bing.com, a familiar domain in a search ad is not proof that the link is safe.