Infostealer Steals OpenClaw AI Agent Configuration Files and Gateway Tokens

OpenClaw AI Agent Configurations Exposed in Major Infostealer Campaign: The New Frontier of AI Agent Security Threats

In a groundbreaking cybersecurity discovery that underscores the evolving risks in the artificial intelligence ecosystem, researchers have uncovered the first documented case of an infostealer successfully exfiltrating OpenClaw AI agent configurations, marking a significant escalation in AI agent security threats.

The incident, discovered by Hudson Rock’s threat intelligence team, represents what they describe as “a significant milestone in the evolution of infostealer behavior: the transition from stealing browser credentials to harvesting the ‘souls’ and identities of personal AI agents.”

The Anatomy of the Breach

The attack leveraged a variant of the Vidar information stealer, an established malware family active since late 2018. Unlike sophisticated targeted attacks, this breach exploited a broader file-grabbing routine that scanned for specific file extensions and directory names containing sensitive data.

The stolen configuration files included:

• openclaw.json – Containing the OpenClaw gateway token, victim’s email address, and workspace path
• device.json – Holding cryptographic keys for secure pairing and signing operations within the OpenClaw ecosystem
• soul.md – Containing the agent’s core operational principles, behavioral guidelines, and ethical boundaries

“The malware may have been looking for standard ‘secrets,’ but it inadvertently struck gold by capturing the entire operational context of the user’s AI assistant,” Hudson Rock noted in their analysis.

Why This Matters: The New Value Proposition for Cybercriminals

This breach represents a paradigm shift in information security. Traditional infostealers target credentials, financial data, and personal information. However, AI agent configurations represent something far more valuable: the digital identity and operational autonomy of an intelligent system.

OpenClaw agents, like other advanced AI assistants, can be configured with access to email accounts, APIs, cloud services, and internal corporate resources. The theft of these configurations essentially provides attackers with a pre-authorized digital persona capable of operating within secured environments.

Gateway Token Exploitation

The theft of the gateway authentication token presents particularly concerning implications. With this token, attackers can potentially:

• Connect remotely to the victim’s local OpenClaw instance if the port is exposed
• Masquerade as the legitimate client in authenticated requests to the AI gateway
• Maintain persistent access to the AI agent’s operational environment

The Broader Context: OpenClaw’s Explosive Growth and Security Challenges

OpenClaw has experienced viral growth since its November 2025 debut, accumulating over 200,000 stars on GitHub. The platform’s popularity stems from its ability to create customizable AI agents that can perform complex tasks autonomously.

However, this rapid adoption has created a massive attack surface. Security researchers have identified several concerning vulnerabilities:

Malicious Skills Campaign on ClawHub

Security researchers at OpenSourceMalware uncovered an ongoing campaign where threat actors host malware on lookalike OpenClaw websites, using skills as decoys rather than embedding payloads directly in SKILL.md files. This technique effectively bypasses VirusTotal scanning mechanisms.

“The shift from embedded payloads to external malware hosting shows threat actors adapting to detection capabilities,” explained Paul McCarty, the security researcher who discovered the campaign.

Exposed Instances and RCE Vulnerabilities

SecurityScorecard’s STRIKE Threat Intelligence team discovered hundreds of thousands of exposed OpenClaw instances, creating potential remote code execution (RCE) vulnerabilities. When OpenClaw runs with permissions to critical resources, these RCE vulnerabilities can become pivot points for lateral movement within corporate networks.

“RCE vulnerabilities allow an attacker to send a malicious request to a service and execute arbitrary code on the underlying system,” the cybersecurity company warned. “A bad actor doesn’t need to break into multiple systems. They need one exposed service that already has authority to act.”

The Moltbook Privacy Nightmare

Adding to the security concerns, OX Security identified a critical privacy flaw in Moltbook, a Reddit-like forum designed exclusively for AI agents running on OpenClaw. The platform suffers from a fundamental design flaw: once an AI agent account is created, it cannot be deleted.

This means users who wish to remove their accounts and associated data have no recourse, creating permanent digital footprints and potential data exposure scenarios.

Industry Response and Mitigation Efforts

In response to these escalating threats, OpenClaw’s maintainers have announced a comprehensive security partnership with VirusTotal to scan for malicious skills uploaded to ClawHub. The platform is also establishing a formal threat model and adding capabilities to audit for potential misconfigurations.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently announced that OpenClaw’s founder, Peter Steinberger, would be joining OpenAI, with the platform continuing as an open-source project supported by the company. This acquisition could potentially bring additional resources and security expertise to address these emerging threats.

The Future of AI Agent Security

As AI agents become increasingly integrated into professional workflows, infostealer developers are expected to release dedicated modules specifically designed to decrypt and parse AI agent configuration files, much like they currently do for browsers and messaging platforms.

This incident serves as a wake-up call for the AI industry, highlighting the need for robust security frameworks that account for the unique risks posed by autonomous digital agents. The “soul” of an AI agent—its operational principles, behavioral guidelines, and access credentials—has become a new and valuable target for cybercriminals.

Tags: #OpenClaw #AIsecurity #Infostealer #Cybersecurity #ArtificialIntelligence #DataBreach #Malware #ThreatIntelligence #OpenSource #AIagents #CyberAttack #SecurityVulnerability #HudsonRock #Vidar #ClawHub #Moltbook #RCE #RemoteCodeExecution #DigitalIdentity #AIprivacy

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