The developer of the popular open source text editor Notepad++ has confirmed that hackers hijacked the software to deliver malicious updates to users over the course of several months in 2025.
In a blog post published Monday, Notepad++ developer Don Ho said that the cyberattack was likely carried out by hackers associated with the Chinese government between June and December 2025, citing multiple analyses by security experts who examined the malware payloads and attack patterns. Ho said this “would explain the highly selective targeting” seen during the campaign.
Last I checked the source of the winget package was github, which is the same on the official website. So I would imagine that updating via Winget is just as vulnerable. The details are super vague.
Edit: Somebody else commented that it was only auto-update that was compromised, and winget would be considered a manual update because it download from their github. So I think winget may be safe.
Dont quote me on that though, the information is still super vague and I am going off of somebody else’s comment.