--- title: Ask HN: Crooked Timber showed showed me a virus captcha,... description: A user encountered a fake CAPTCHA on the Crooked Timber website that attempted to trick them into running a malicious PowerShell command via the Windows Run... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/ask-hn-crooked-timber-showed-showed-me-a-virus-captcha-what-now--tcmug8uwk twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Ask HN: Crooked Timber showed showed me a virus captcha, What now? | daily.dev og:description: A user encountered a fake CAPTCHA on the Crooked Timber website that attempted to trick them into running a malicious PowerShell command via the Windows Run... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/ask-hn-crooked-timber-showed-showed-me-a-virus-captcha-what-now--tcmug8uwk og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/TCmug8uWK.png og:image:alt: Ask HN: Crooked Timber showed showed me a virus captcha, What now? og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Ask HN: Crooked Timber showed showed me a virus captcha, What now? **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A user encountered a fake CAPTCHA on the Crooked Timber website that attempted to trick them into running a malicious PowerShell command via the Windows Run dialog. The attack, known as ClickFix, works by injecting a script into the clipboard and instructing the user to paste and execute it, which would download and run a dropper from a remote server. The user recognized the attempt in time. The key takeaway: never execute code through the Run dialog to solve a CAPTCHA — legitimate services never require this. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [ClickFix Attacks Evolve to Better Hide Malicious Payloads](https://daily.dev/posts/clickfix-attacks-evolve-to-better-hide-malicious-payloads-ypv7fdjj3) · Dark Reading · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Prove You’re Human, Install This Malware](https://daily.dev/posts/prove-you-re-human-install-this-malware-zkafttbcf) · Security Boulevard · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Fake Cloudflare CAPTCHA tricks victims into opening a tunnel for attackers](https://daily.dev/posts/fake-cloudflare-captcha-tricks-victims-into-opening-a-tunnel-for-attackers-gtqaorplr) · CSO Online · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#security](https://daily.dev/tags/security), [#malware](https://daily.dev/tags/malware), [#powershell](https://daily.dev/tags/powershell) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/ask-hn-crooked-timber-showed-showed-me-a-virus-captcha-what-now--tcmug8uwk) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Ask HN: Crooked Timber showed showed me a virus captcha, What now?","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/ask-hn-crooked-timber-showed-showed-me-a-virus-captcha-what-now--tcmug8uwk","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/ask-hn-crooked-timber-showed-showed-me-a-virus-captcha-what-now--tcmug8uwk"},"datePublished":"2026-07-28T15:14:26.062Z","dateModified":"2026-07-28T15:17:54.040Z","description":"A user encountered a fake CAPTCHA on the Crooked Timber website that attempted to trick them into running a malicious PowerShell command via the Windows Run...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--HRgLpUt6--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2003","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--HRgLpUt6--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2003","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hacker News","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hacker News","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/hn","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/ask-hn-crooked-timber-showed-showed-me-a-virus-captcha-what-now--tcmug8uwk","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"security,malware,powershell","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hacker News","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Ask HN: Crooked Timber showed showed me a virus captcha, What now?"}]} ```