Criminals are buying search ads and building fake AI install pages that trick people into pasting a harmful command. The trick is now the most common attack one security firm sees.
Fake download pages for popular AI tools are tricking people into installing malware on their own computers. The method is called ClickFix. A web page talks you into copying a command and pasting it into your computer, which quietly runs the attacker's code. Security firm Push Security says ClickFix made up 52% of its detections through the second quarter of 2026, and 67% in August.
The newest version is called InstallFix. Attackers copy the real install page for a tool such as Claude Code, Codex or NotebookLM, then swap the install command for one that delivers malware. Push first documented this in March 2026. The copies are promoted through search ads, so they show up when people search for the tool.
In one case, a Google search for "claude mac" returned a sponsored result that displayed bing.com as its address. It passed the visitor through a hacked retail website to a fake "Download Claude" page. The page showed Anthropic's real command, but the copy button placed a different one on the clipboard. That command even printed a genuine claude.ai address in the Terminal before fetching the malicious code.
Many AI tools install with a single line pasted into a terminal. People who never used a command line now paste commands from web pages as a normal step. Many also reach AI tools by typing the name into a search engine. Push found that 4 in 5 ClickFix pages in 2026 were reached from search engines, not email.
Shared chats are another route. Attackers post chats on ChatGPT and Claude that contain malicious instructions or a link to a fake download page. Because they sit on chatgpt.com or claude.ai, security tools that judge a site by its reputation tend to trust them. One fake custom GPT answered every message with a made-up "Service Availability Notice" linking to a malicious page. It had more than 10,000 conversations when Push found it.
Other researchers report the same pattern. ANY.RUN linked 1,258 public analyses to fake AI tool campaigns between April 15 and October 5, 2026. Of those, 81% impersonated Claude, ChatGPT or Codex. Microsoft says ClickFix attacks grew roughly 23x between December 2025 and May 2026.
Anyone who searches for or installs AI tools on a Mac or Windows computer is a target. That includes employees trying new tools on their own. These pages also hide from visitors who did not arrive through the ad, so a later check by IT may show nothing wrong.
The steps in the alert box above cover the rules to set and what to do if someone already ran a pasted command. Warning signs to share with staff:
Never paste a command from a web page unless IT approved it, and open AI tools from a typed address or bookmark, not a search ad.
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