Skip to content
Vol. 1 · Ed. 2026
CyberGlossary
Entry № 199

ClickFix Attack

¿Qué es ClickFix Attack?

ClickFix AttackA 2024-vintage social-engineering lure that displays a fake CAPTCHA, error dialog, or 'verify you're human' page instructing the victim to paste a pre-copied PowerShell command into Run, delivering info-stealers or loaders.


ClickFix is a social-engineering pattern that exploded in 2024 and remained one of the most common initial-access vectors in 2025–2026 stealer campaigns. The victim lands on a compromised or attacker-controlled page that mimics a CAPTCHA challenge, a Microsoft/Cloudflare verification prompt, or a 'fix the document loading error' dialog. The page silently writes a long, obfuscated PowerShell or `mshta` command to the clipboard and asks the victim to press Win+R, paste, and press Enter to 'complete verification' or 'apply the fix'. Because the user types the command themselves, no exploit, macro, or signed payload is required — endpoint controls relying on browser exploitation or office-macro telemetry miss it entirely. Documented payloads include Lumma Stealer, DarkGate, Vidar, Atomic Stealer (macOS variants), AsyncRAT, and SocGholish loaders. Defenses combine user training on never pasting commands into Run, attack-surface reduction rules blocking PowerShell/mshta launched from Explorer, and EDR telemetry on suspicious clipboard-sourced PowerShell.

Ejemplos

  1. 01

    A compromised news site shows a 'I'm not a robot — verify' dialog that copies a base64-PowerShell command and instructs the user to paste it into Win+R; the command downloads Lumma Stealer.

  2. 02

    A macOS variant tells the user to paste a Terminal command 'to fix screen-share permissions,' delivering Atomic Stealer.

Preguntas frecuentes

¿Qué es ClickFix Attack?

A 2024-vintage social-engineering lure that displays a fake CAPTCHA, error dialog, or 'verify you're human' page instructing the victim to paste a pre-copied PowerShell command into Run, delivering info-stealers or loaders. Pertenece a la categoría de Ataques y amenazas en ciberseguridad.

¿Qué significa ClickFix Attack?

A 2024-vintage social-engineering lure that displays a fake CAPTCHA, error dialog, or 'verify you're human' page instructing the victim to paste a pre-copied PowerShell command into Run, delivering info-stealers or loaders.

¿Cómo funciona ClickFix Attack?

ClickFix is a social-engineering pattern that exploded in 2024 and remained one of the most common initial-access vectors in 2025–2026 stealer campaigns. The victim lands on a compromised or attacker-controlled page that mimics a CAPTCHA challenge, a Microsoft/Cloudflare verification prompt, or a 'fix the document loading error' dialog. The page silently writes a long, obfuscated PowerShell or `mshta` command to the clipboard and asks the victim to press Win+R, paste, and press Enter to 'complete verification' or 'apply the fix'. Because the user types the command themselves, no exploit, macro, or signed payload is required — endpoint controls relying on browser exploitation or office-macro telemetry miss it entirely. Documented payloads include Lumma Stealer, DarkGate, Vidar, Atomic Stealer (macOS variants), AsyncRAT, and SocGholish loaders. Defenses combine user training on never pasting commands into Run, attack-surface reduction rules blocking PowerShell/mshta launched from Explorer, and EDR telemetry on suspicious clipboard-sourced PowerShell.

¿Cómo defenderse de ClickFix Attack?

Las defensas contra ClickFix Attack combinan habitualmente controles técnicos y prácticas operativas, como se detalla en la definición.

¿Cuáles son otros nombres para ClickFix Attack?

Nombres alternativos comunes: Paste-and-run lure, Fake CAPTCHA attack.

Términos relacionados

Véase también