OpenClaw AI Agent Flaws Could Enable Prompt Injection and Data Exfiltration

China’s National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team (CNCERT) has issued an urgent warning about the security risks associated with OpenClaw, an open-source autonomous AI agent that has rapidly gained popularity in recent months. The warning highlights the platform’s “inherently weak default security configurations” and its privileged access to systems, which could allow bad actors to seize control of endpoints.

In a detailed post on WeChat, CNCERT outlined several critical vulnerabilities, including the risk of prompt injections. These attacks involve embedding malicious instructions within web pages, which can trick the AI agent into leaking sensitive information. This type of attack, also known as indirect prompt injection (IDPI) or cross-domain prompt injection (XPIA), exploits the agent’s ability to browse the web, retrieve information, and take actions on behalf of users.

The risks are not hypothetical. Researchers at PromptArmor recently demonstrated how the link preview feature in messaging apps like Telegram or Discord can be weaponized to exfiltrate data from OpenClaw. By manipulating the AI agent to generate an attacker-controlled URL, sensitive data can be transmitted to a malicious domain without the user ever clicking on a link.

CNCERT also highlighted three additional concerns:

1. The possibility of OpenClaw inadvertently deleting critical information due to misinterpretation of user instructions.
2. Threat actors uploading malicious skills to repositories like ClawHub, which can run arbitrary commands or deploy malware.
3. Exploitation of recently disclosed security vulnerabilities in OpenClaw to compromise systems and leak sensitive data.

The agency warned that for critical sectors like finance and energy, such breaches could lead to the leakage of core business data, trade secrets, and code repositories, potentially causing catastrophic losses.

To mitigate these risks, CNCERT advises users and organizations to strengthen network controls, prevent exposure of OpenClaw’s default management port to the internet, isolate the service in a container, avoid storing credentials in plaintext, download skills only from trusted channels, disable automatic updates for skills, and keep the agent up-to-date.

The warning comes amid reports that Chinese authorities are moving to restrict state-run enterprises and government agencies from running OpenClaw AI apps on office computers. The ban also extends to the families of military personnel, reflecting the seriousness of the security concerns.

The viral popularity of OpenClaw has also attracted cybercriminals, who are capitalizing on the phenomenon to distribute malicious GitHub repositories posing as OpenClaw installers. These repositories deploy information stealers like Atomic and Vidar Stealer, as well as a Golang-based proxy malware known as GhostSocks, using ClickFix-style instructions.

Huntress, a cybersecurity firm, reported that the malware was hosted on GitHub and became the top-rated suggestion in Bing’s AI search results for OpenClaw Windows, making it highly effective in targeting users attempting to install the software.

As the use of AI agents continues to grow, so too do the risks associated with their deployment. Organizations must remain vigilant and take proactive steps to secure their systems against these evolving threats.

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