I've seen this problem happened to others before. Thank you for alerting the community again so that new Bitcoiners can be aware of.
Do you know where this "virus" originated from? Does it come from a download or just visiting a website?
Does it also affect QR Code? I use a mobile wallet and I always just scan QR code instead of copy-pasting Bitcoin address.
Both downloading file and visiting website could infect your computer. As far as I know that this virus actually replaces the thing you've just copied with specific text which is in this case, a btc address.
But, there's also possibilities that this virus will replace the address when you're going to send to transaction instead, but, if when you're scanning your QR code and the transaction be sent automatically, it'll be fine, I suppose.
Thank you for the information. I think that the "virus" might only happen when ones is trying to send a transaction. If not then this bug is very easily detectable.
I haven't know of this bug to exist when scanning a bitcoin QR code but it doesn't take more than a couple of seconds to double check that the address you are sending to is the correct one.
Always check the first 4 characters, another 4 consecutive characters in the middle and a couple at the end and you'll be right, the odds of someone creating a vanity address that meets that criteria are extremely slim to non existence.
Yes. I always check the Bitcoin address on both sides before clicking the send button. I also haven't heard about any mobile users getting infected by this "copy-pasting bug" yet. However attacker may be in the process or already created a version for mobile wallet. So regardless of platform, we should always check before sending.