As of April 10th, 2026, the official CPUID website (cpuid.com) was reported to be compromised. Users who have downloaded HWMonitor 1.63 are receiving a malicious installer named HWiNFO_Monitor_Setup.exeinstead of the legitimate file. Windows Defender flags it on download, and the installer displays Russian-language dialogs.
Affected: HWMonitor, CPU-Z, anything downloaded from cpuid.com right now.
What to do (Post-fix between April 9-10):
Do not download anything from cpuid.com until resolved
If you recently downloaded either tool, scan immediately with Windows Defender and Malwarebytes
Switch to HWiNFO (hwinfo.com) — covers everything HWMonitor and CPU-Z do in one app. Not affected.
Update: CPUID fixed the CPU-Z and HWMonitor after the hack, Samuel Demeulemeester, the creator of CPU-Z and the founder of CPUID released a statement:
Hi, Investigations are still ongoing, but it appears that a secondary feature (basically a side API) was compromised for approximately six hours between April 9 and April 10, causing the main website to randomly display malicious links (our signed original files were not compromised). The breach was found and has since been fixed.
Sorry for the inconvenience. I did my best to fix that mess as soon as possible :-/
Sam.
Samuel Demeulemeester, via a post on X
Thanks to Jaycosm for sharing more context:
7‑Zip Impersonation Attack (January 12–22, 2026)
Attackers created a fake 7‑zip.com site mimicking the real 7‑zip.org.
The fake site served compromised executables for 10 days.
Users who downloaded before Jan 12 or from the real domain were safe.
Notepad++ Malware Incident (February 2026)
A separate compromise affected certain Notepad++ distribution channels.
Reinforces the trend of attackers targeting trusted utility software.
These incidents highlight a growing pattern: supply‑chain attacks targeting popular utility tools and their update mechanisms.
Sources:
https://www.igorslab.de/en/warning-cpuid-suspected-of-being-a-virus-suspicious-hwmonitor-downloads-are-causing-alarm/ (April 10, 2026)
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/1sh4e5l/warning_hwmonitor_163_download_on_the_official/ (April 9, 2026)
https://www.pcguide.com/news/breach-has-been-fixed-says-cpuid-after-cpu-z-or-hwmonitor-flagged-as-malware-in-apparent-hack/ (April 10, 2026)
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/cyber-security/unofficial-7-zip-com-website-served-up-malware-for-10-days-files-turned-pcs-into-a-proxy-botnet (February 12, 2026)