OpenClaw, the viral AI agent that's been taking over users' computers for the past week, is now a full-blown security crisis. Security researchers just uncovered more than 400 malicious "skills" on the platform's ClawHub marketplace - including the most-downloaded add-on, which 1Password's security team confirms is literally a malware delivery system. The revelations turn what seemed like a clever productivity tool into a potential crypto heist waiting to happen, with stolen exchange keys, wallet credentials, and browser passwords already in the wild.
OpenClaw just went from breakout AI sensation to security disaster in less than a week. The locally-run AI agent that exploded in popularity for actually doing things - managing calendars, checking in for flights, cleaning inboxes - is now at the center of a malware crisis that's got security researchers sounding alarm bells.
1Password product VP Jason Meller dropped the bombshell Monday in a detailed security analysis, declaring OpenClaw's skill hub has become "an attack surface." The most-downloaded add-on on ClawHub? It's serving as a "malware delivery vehicle," according to Meller's team. That's not theoretical risk - that's active exploitation happening right now to users who thought they were just adding helpful features.
The scope is staggering. OpenSourceMalware, a platform tracking malicious code across open-source ecosystems, identified 28 malicious skills published on ClawHub between January 27-29, then another 386 infected add-ons uploaded between January 31 and February 2. We're talking about 414 pieces of malware masquerading as legitimate productivity tools in just six days.
Here's why this is so dangerous: OpenClaw - previously known as Clawdbot, then Moltbot - runs locally on your device. Users interact with it through messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, and iMessage, but the agent itself has deep system access. Some users are granting OpenClaw permission to read and write files, execute scripts, and run shell commands. That's essentially handing over the keys to your entire computer to an AI that's now pulling instructions from a malware-infected marketplace.
