Threat watch / Campaign
TypoPrompting: 186 lookalike AI tool domains lead to ClickFix lures and hijacking extensions
Island researchers traced 186 lookalike domains across 27 AI brands (typos such as cloude[.]ai or chatlgpt[.]com). A visitor who mistypes the name of an AI tool is sent to a fake verification page that asks them to run a hidden PowerShell or Terminal command, to a fake "Security Check" that installs a browser hijacker, or to a Chrome extension that takes over the default search engine. The 17 extensions from the same kit still listed on November 3 declared 972,000 users.
- Sector
- Many sectors
- Way in
- Phishing, social engineering
- Product or vendor
- None named
- declared users of the 17 extensions from the same kit still on the Chrome Web Store on November 3[1]
- 972,000
- How it happened
- Typosquatting on AI tool names. The lookalike domains lead to fake Cloudflare-style verification pages (ClickFix) that copy a hidden PowerShell command on Windows, or a curl-to-zsh command on macOS, for the visitor to run; to fake "Security Check" pages that deliver Net Guard, a Microsoft Store-signed app that hijacks the browser; and to Chrome extensions that set the default search provider to find.flashysearches[.]com.[1][2] Checked 12 Nov 2026
- What was stolen
- Not public yet Checked 12 Nov 2026
- Who was impacted
- People who mistype the address of an AI tool, on Windows and macOS. Island counts domains and extension users, not infected machines.[1] Checked 12 Nov 2026
- Threat actor
- Not attributed
Timeline
- Some of the lookalike domains, such as cloude[.]ai and cluade[.]ai, are registered as early as this date, according to The Hacker News. [2]
- The 17 search-hijacking extensions from the same kit still listed on the Chrome Web Store show 972,000 declared users; Island says 13 others built from the kit have since been removed. [1]
- Island publishes its research, naming the pattern "TypoPrompting": 186 lookalike domains across 27 AI brands, and a gate that serves 211 entry domains, including bank and enterprise lookalikes. [1][2]