A new malware campaign, dubbed "ClickFix," has been discovered. In this hack attempt, attackers impersonate a legitimate Windows update screen, complete with realistic progress indicators and messaging, to trick users into running malicious commands. Once executed, those commands initiate a sophisticated infection chain that uses built-in Windows tools, obfuscated scripts, and in-memory techniques to avoid detection. The malware payload - typically an info-stealer - ultimately harvests credentials, cookies, and sensitive data, all while leaving little to no trace on disk.

What makes ClickFix particularly dangerous is its use of advanced evasion tactics such as steganography, where malware is hidden inside seemingly harmless image files, and process injection into trusted Windows components like explorer.exe. These methods allow attackers to bypass traditional security tools and operate quietly within legitimate system processes. The campaign succeeds by exploiting user trust in familiar interfaces and update workflows, relying on social engineering as the initial foothold before deploying technically complex, stealthy malware.

This type of threat underscores the critical importance of true end-to-end cybersecurity monitoring - from the network layer all the way to the endpoint - with full activity, session, and file reconstruction. Organizations need visibility into user actions, process execution, memory behavior, network communications, and file contents to detect anomalous chains like ClickFix as they unfold. Only with a platform that includes full network-to-endpoint correlation, combined with deep inspection and forensic reconstruction, like NIKSUN, can security teams see not just that an alert occurred, but how it happened, what was affected, and what data may have been exfiltrated. Without this holistic visibility, attacks that live in memory, hide in trusted processes, and blend into normal user behavior can easily evade point solutions, delaying detection and increasing the impact of a breach. Read more about this story on our LinkedIn page