autoupdater and connection temp.sh

testname

@donho Thank you, I did just that (manual update). My older install turned out to be fine as well, thanks to the brilliant strategy of apparently having clicked no to the update prompt for the past 6 years… :)

Lycan Thrope

@donho, so if I’ve already auto-updated from 8.8.8 to 8.9.1, would it be necessary or advised to run it again, manually?

donho

@Lycan-Thrope

so if I’ve already auto-updated from 8.8.8 to 8.9.1, would it be necessary or advised to run it again, manually?

Once you have v8.9.1 installed, it won’t be necessary to update your Notepad++ manually - you can just let auto-updater do its job.

Rickard Ståhl

Hi

If I understood the security issue correctly then it was the autoupdate functionallity that was compromised and that the advice is to download the latest version from the website and update.

What is not clear to me is if a user clicks the “?” menu and then select “Update Notepad++”, if the update then is updated through the potentially compromised autoupdater function or if that is the same thing as downloading the MSI and installing it?

I just want to be clear with the instructions to the users.

Marten van Wezel

Thank you for the work and clarity. Just one weird question, when I try to install the latest npp (8.9.1 x64), the “Auto-Updater” tickbox is greyed out and I can’t untick it. Strangely, after playing around with this window a bit it allowed me to untick it, but in context of this attack it’s not a great look?

Marten van Wezel

… and instant next post: after running the installer, because my previous install did have gup.exe, it should be noted gup was not removed, and npp in fact seems to happily use the old gup.exe now. I’ve verified it’s digital signature (all OK) but still… a bit messy?

Martin-1

Hi,

I created a new post not knowing this was already here. I do apologize.

I am totally not in the know on any of these things so my questions are simple and I really can’t find an answer that tells me these things.

As said, I understand very little about these sort of things. To start with:

I have had Notepad++ installed on my system for years and always have the auto update turned on. Currently Notepad++ is at version 8.9. I am not sure when it updated to that version though.
I run Windows 11 and there as well, the moment there is an update I get it installed.
I use Kaspersky Premium to protect my system.

All I want to know are the following 3 things:

1 - How do I know if my system was affected by this?
2 - How do I clean the infection up if my system was affected by this?
3 - What might they have stolen from my PC?

They seem simple questions, but the answers I found were not really understandable for me.

PeterJones

@Martin-1 ,

Your questions were answered in reply to your post. Your questions were answered in the FAQ you were directed to. Your questions were answered earlier in this Topic. Please stop asking the same questions that have already been answered multiple times

donho

@Rickard-Ståhl

What is not clear to me is if a user clicks the “?” menu and then select “Update Notepad++”, if the update then is updated through the potentially compromised autoupdater function or if that is the same thing as downloading the MSI and installing it?

“Update Notepad++” command uses auto-updater (GUP.exe).
At the bottom I provide the “simplied” clarification link for the concerned users.

@Marten-van-Wezel &
“how to disable the auto-updater” is included in the link of bottom.

@Martin-1
Short answer: Normal users are unlikely affected by this incident. Please see the link at the bottom.

FYI, the new IoCs (Indicators of Compromise) are published in the following link:
https://notepad-plus-plus.org/news/clarification-security-incident/

PeterJones

@Rickard-Ståhl said in autoupdater and connection temp.sh:

What is not clear to me is if a user clicks the “?” menu and then select “Update Notepad++”, if the update then is updated through the potentially compromised autoupdater function or if that is the same thing as downloading the MSI and installing it?

The ? > Update Notepad++ uses the builtin updater function.

In case it wasn’t clear: The function was not compromised. The website was, and for a tiny subset of users, when the website was hacked during the given date range, the website would return incorrect information. The website has been fixed already, so is no longer responding with incorrect information to anyone.

In the interim, the function has been improved to do better checks, so that if the hackers get better than the new website security again, they will not be able to use the same attack vector. That improved code would prevent downloading something based on incorrect information.

If you are running a version older than v8.8.8, the function hasn’t been improved: it’s not inherently “dangerous”, per se, since the website has been fixed; but out of an abundance of caution, the recommendation is to manually go to the official v8.9.1 download page https://notepad-plus-plus.org/downloads/v8.9.1/ which links to the download files stored on GitHub (or to go to the official GitHub releases page https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/releases, download the installer yourself, and run the installer yourself, thus ensuring that you get the improved updater. After doing a manual download and installation of v8.9.1, the auto-updater will have the extra security features, and auto-update (or ? > Update Notepad++) will be more secure going forward.

PeterJones

@Marten-van-Wezel said in autoupdater and connection temp.sh:

after running the installer, because my previous install did have gup.exe, it should be noted gup was not removed, and npp in fact seems to happily use the old gup.exe now

That’s the worst of both worlds. One of the points of manually downloading and installing v8.9.1 is that you don’t use the old gup for this single installation, but that the newer gup installed with v8.9.1 will have the added security features, so that auto-update will be more secure going forward.

But by what you did, you are now running with the newest notepad++.exe, which is fine and dandy, but there was nothing wrong or insecure with that; but you are also running with an old gup.exe, so the updater/installer doesn’t currently have the additional security features, which is a bad thing.

Either install the auto-updater when you manually install v8.9.1, so that you have the secure updater going foward, or manually delete the updater executables and dlls from C:\Program Files\Notepad++\updater (or the whole folder, really) if you don’t ever want auto-updater again. But do not use the mix of new-Notepad++-and-old-gup.exe which you currently have.