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CPUID Hijacked to Serve Malware as HWMonitor Downloads

Ground.News • April 10, 2026

: Six-hour breach turned trusted links into a coin toss between legit tools and credential stealers

Hackers gained access to an API for the CPUID project and changed the download links on the official website to serve malicious executables for the popular CPU-Z and HWMonitor tools.

Six-hour breach turned trusted links into a coin toss between legit tools and credential stealers Visitors to the CPUID website were briefly exposed to malware this week after attackers hijacked part of its backend, turning trusted download links into a delivery mechanism for something far less welcome.… This article has been indexed from The Register – Security Read the original article: CPUID site hijacked to serve malware instead of HWMonit…

Last Updated on April 10, 2026 CPU-Z and HWMonitor, a couple of popular benchmarking and diagnostic tools commonly used by PC gamers, have reportedly been compromised. Users online are warning against downloading the latest versions of the software due to being flagged as containing malicious content. As such, we can only recommend that you avoid ...

Sometimes it's precisely the most inconspicuous tools that you least expect to be security-related. A hardware monitor is supposed to read temperatures, output voltages, and ideally, simply not be a nuisance. But when an installer with an unfamiliar name, Russian dialogue, and a malware warning suddenly appears in the update or download path, a mundane routine can quickly become very problematic. […] Source

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This article is one source in a clustered incident — the cluster page carries the summary, timeline and every other outlet covering it.

CPUID Website Breach Serves Malware via CPU-Z and HWMonitor Downloads The CPUID website was compromised for approximately six hours between April 9 and April 10, 2026, allowing attackers to hijack download links for popular utilities CPU-Z and HWMonitor. Users who attempted to download these tools received trojanized installers, specifically a file named 'HWiNFO_Monitor_Setup.exe,' which triggered antivirus alerts. The malware is designed to steal sensitive data, including browser credentials, and employs advanced evasion techniques to bypass detection. CPUID confirmed that the original software files were not compromised, but the attack exploited a secondary API feature. Security researchers noted that the malicious downloads were flagged by multiple antivirus engines. The breach has since been fixed, and CPUID is now serving clean versions of the software. Users are advised to check for any installations during the attack period and take necessary precautions. 16 sources 68

CPUID Hijacked to Serve Malware as HWMonitor Downloads

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Extracted Entities

Attack Types (2)

Companies (1)