Not sure who needs to know this, but if you download and install the Windows version of Rufus, the free software for writing ISO images to USB/CD-ROM, your PC will end up with about 100 trojans.
XFEDI
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No clue whether the resulting ISO is also malicious, but tried running it just for giggles on a spare Windows PC from bootup and the machine's bios said nope, wouldn't allow b/c security policy. Not sure if it's related but I've never seen that message before trying to boot up from a USB.
However, in my defense Google's default search results list rufus[.]ie as the authoritative site
Look, compromises happen to everyone. I have received a ton of private messages asking if I'm okay. But the reality is that I stopped using Windoze a long time ago and this was a kind of one-off thing where I was trying to re-image an old system anyway (away from Windoze).
I love all the commentary about how I'm supposedly inventing things here. Supply chain hacks or just selling one's site/brand happens. If you don't like the results too bad. Check them yourself.
Is it ironic that your Windoze PC gets infected while trying to download a file that allows you to write an installable Linux ISO? I think very much so and I'm still LOLing about it.
I've been made aware of a post from someone representing Rufus who says I'm very confused about this post. I've reported that Windows Defender went bananas after I installed Rufus on a Windows 11 device. It immediately popped up warnings about hacktools and trojans being installed while it was installing. I wish I had a record of it but I nuked everything after the alerts.