Fake AI Apps Hide Yoba Crypto Miner

A real campaign called Yoba used fake GitHub projects for supposed ChatGPT and Claude desktop applications to lure people into downloading malicious ZIP installers. The installers included legitimate signed OpenAI or Anthropic programs alongside malicious files, ultimately installing a cryptocurrency miner and giving operators a way to deliver other malware.

Key findings

• Attackers created fake GitHub repositories and GitHub.io pages posing as AI desktop applications, including GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-6 Astra, and Claude Opus.
• The fake projects ranked highly in Google search results despite having no fake stars or forks, indicating an SEO-poisoning lure.
• Victims were led to download ZIP releases containing a legitimate signed OpenAI or Anthropic executable named Setup.exe and a malicious winmm.dll file.
• The signed executable loaded the malicious DLL, allowing the malware to appear more trustworthy and evade some security checks.
• The malware requested administrator rights; after a victim reran it as administrator, it established persistence with a fake Microsoft scheduled task.
• The final payload was an XMRig cryptocurrency miner, but the delivery system can also provide other executable or PowerShell malware.

Who’s being targeted

• Commonly targeted roles: All employees, Developers, Data analysts, Researchers, IT administrators, Software procurement teams, Security operations teams.
• Affected industries: Technology, Professional Services, Education, Finance and Insurance, Healthcare, Government, Any organization using or evaluating AI software.
• Attack channels: website.
• Impersonated: OpenAI or Anthropic desktop software project, Legitimate OpenAI or Anthropic installer.

Awareness takeaways

• Download AI tools only from the vendor's verified website or approved internal software catalog, not from search results or unknown GitHub projects.
• Treat a request to rerun a new application as administrator as a stop-and-verify moment, especially for tools downloaded outside approved channels.
• Do not assume a file is safe merely because it contains a signed program or uses a recognizable company name.
• Report unfamiliar AI software downloads that cause unexplained high CPU use or appear to run in the background.

Red flags to watch for

• The software is offered through an unfamiliar GitHub repository rather than an official vendor download page.
• The project has no meaningful stars or forks despite appearing prominently in search results.
• The download is a ZIP archive containing an installer rather than a clearly verified official application package.
• A downloaded AI tool asks for administrator privileges when that level of access is not expected.
• The ZIP pairs a trusted-looking executable with an unfamiliar DLL file.
• The prompt says "Please run this program as Administrator." instead of using a normal, verified software-installation workflow.