Malware in KDE Plasma Wallpaper “NeoNova”: How to Check Your PC

If you installed the NeoNova animated wallpaper on KDE Plasma, treat that computer as compromised.

KDE developer David Edmundson warned on 11 November that “NeoNova Animated Wallpaper”, a third-party add-on listed on the KDE Store since 14 October, “is shipping malware”. A user named Serg Star spotted it while reading the code. According to Edmundson, the wallpaper fetches a second script, which drops a shared library into your home folder and starts it. The payload, he writes, “thus far looks like” Sliver, an open-source framework built to control computers remotely.

The wallpaper itself works as advertised: drifting, glowing orbs, with settings for colours and a background image. That is the point. Nobody goes looking for malware in something that looks this harmless.

Source: Privacy Affairs · 2026-11-11