Clipboard hijacking is a widespread and dangerous type of cyberattack that involves malware monitoring and/or intercepting the contents of your clipboard (where your copy/paste is held).
Of the different types of clipboard hijacking attacks, ClickFix has grown into one of the most notorious. In a ClickFix attack, you’ll often see a fake error message or fake CAPTCHA verification test that hijacks your clipboard and tries to trick you into running malicious commands via the command line or run prompts, ultimately installing malware on your system and even stealing your sensitive data.
The web browser Opera just announced that it has added built-in protection against ClickFix attacks and other clipboard-based attacks. Called Paste Protect, the new feature monitors your clipboard in real time and automatically blocks the pasting of malicious code. When a block happens, you’ll see a red icon appear in the address bar along with a warning that explains what happened.
According to the announcement, Opera is the first major web browser to implement native guards against clipboard hijacking. It’s currently only available in the desktop versions of its browser, and the Paste Protect feature is enabled by default. It remains to be seen whether other major web browsers will add similar protections.
