OpenClaw Enhances Security by Integrating VirusTotal Scanning for ClawHub Skills
OpenClaw, previously known as Moltbot and Clawdbot, has announced a strategic partnership with Google’s VirusTotal to bolster the security of its ClawHub skill marketplace. This collaboration aims to proactively identify and mitigate potential threats by scanning all skills uploaded to ClawHub using VirusTotal’s advanced threat intelligence, including their innovative Code Insight capability.
Peter Steinberger, OpenClaw’s founder, along with Jamieson O’Reilly and Bernardo Quintero, emphasized the significance of this integration:
All skills published to ClawHub are now scanned using VirusTotal’s threat intelligence, including their new Code Insight capability. This provides an additional layer of security for the OpenClaw community.
How the Integration Works
Each skill uploaded to ClawHub undergoes a meticulous security assessment:
1. Hash Generation and Database Cross-Check: A unique SHA-256 hash is created for every skill, which is then cross-referenced against VirusTotal’s extensive database to detect any known threats.
2. Comprehensive Analysis: If the skill’s hash isn’t found in the database, the entire skill bundle is uploaded to VirusTotal for an in-depth analysis using their Code Insight feature.
3. Automated Approval System: Skills deemed benign by Code Insight are automatically approved for ClawHub. Those flagged as suspicious receive a warning, while any skill identified as malicious is blocked from download.
4. Continuous Monitoring: To address the evolving nature of cyber threats, all active skills are re-scanned daily. This ensures that any skill, which may have been clean initially but later becomes malicious, is promptly identified and addressed.
Acknowledging Limitations
While this integration significantly enhances security, OpenClaw maintainers caution that VirusTotal scanning isn’t a panacea. There’s a possibility that some malicious skills, especially those employing sophisticated prompt injection payloads, might evade detection.
Additional Security Measures
Beyond the VirusTotal partnership, OpenClaw is committed to a comprehensive security strategy:
– Threat Modeling: Publishing a detailed threat model to understand and mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
– Security Roadmap: Developing a public security roadmap to outline future security enhancements.
– Formal Reporting Process: Establishing a clear process for reporting security issues.
– Codebase Audit: Conducting a thorough security audit of the entire codebase to identify and rectify vulnerabilities.
Contextual Background
This development follows reports uncovering hundreds of malicious skills on ClawHub. These skills often masquerade as legitimate tools but contain hidden functionalities designed to exfiltrate data, inject backdoors for remote access, or install stealer malware.
Cisco highlighted the risks associated with AI agents like OpenClaw:
AI agents with system access can become covert data-leak channels that bypass traditional data loss prevention, proxies, and endpoint monitoring. Models can also become an execution orchestrator, wherein the prompt itself becomes the instruction and is difficult to catch using traditional security tooling.
The Rise of OpenClaw and Associated Risks
OpenClaw has rapidly gained popularity as an open-source agentic AI assistant. Its adjacent social network, Moltbook, allows autonomous AI agents to interact in a Reddit-style platform. While OpenClaw serves as an automation engine capable of triggering workflows, interacting with online services, and operating across devices, its extensive access to tools and data from untrusted sources introduces significant risks, including malware and prompt injection.
The convenience of these integrations broadens the attack surface, potentially turning the agent into an agentic trojan horse for data exfiltration and other malicious activities. Backslash Security aptly described OpenClaw as an AI With Hands.
OpenClaw acknowledges the potential for abuse:
Unlike traditional software that does exactly what code tells it to do, AI agents interpret natural language and make decisions about actions. They blur the boundary between user intent and machine execution. They can be manipulated through language itself.
The platform recognizes that the power wielded by skills can be exploited by malicious actors to exfiltrate sensitive information, execute unauthorized commands, send messages on behalf of victims, and even download and run additional payloads without user knowledge or consent.
Enterprise Implications
With OpenClaw being increasingly deployed on employee endpoints without formal IT or security approval, the elevated privileges of these agents can facilitate shell access, data movement, and network connectivity outside standard security controls. This creates a new class of Shadow AI risk for enterprises.
Astrix Security researcher Tomer Yahalom noted:
OpenClaw and tools like it will show up in your organization whether you approve them or not. Employees will install them because they’re genuinely useful. The only question is whether you’ll know about it.
Recent Security Concerns
Several security issues have come to light in recent days:
– Proxied Traffic Misclassification: A now-fixed issue in earlier versions could cause proxied traffic to be misclassified as local, bypassing authentication for some internet-exposed instances.
– Credential Storage and Insecure Coding: OpenClaw stores credentials in cleartext and uses insecure coding patterns, including direct evaluation with user input. Common uninstall methods leave sensitive data behind, making full revocation of access challenging.
– Zero-Click Attacks: Exploitation of OpenClaw’s integrations to plant backdoors on victim endpoints for persistent control when processing seemingly harmless documents.
– Prompt Injection Vulnerabilities: Indirect prompt injections embedded in web pages can manipulate OpenClaw’s behavior, leading to unauthorized actions.
– Malicious Skills on ClawHub: A security analysis of 3,984 skills on ClawHub found that 283 skills, about 7.1% of the registry, contain critical security flaws exposing sensitive credentials in plaintext.
– Malware Distribution Tactics: Malicious skills are often cloned and re-published with slight name variations, with payloads staged through paste services and public repositories.
– Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities: A now-patched vulnerability could have allowed attackers to execute arbitrary commands on the host by tricking users into visiting malicious web pages.
– Exposed Instances: OpenClaw’s gateway binds to 0.0.0.0:18789 by default, exposing the full API to any network interface. Over 30,000 exposed instances are accessible over the internet as of February 8, 2026, although most require a token for interaction.
– Data Exfiltration via Prompt Injection: Crafted messages can exfiltrate sensitive files, including credentials and API keys, from exposed OpenClaw instances.
– Misconfigured Databases: A misconfigured Supabase database belonging to Moltbook was left exposed, making secret API keys and private messages freely accessible.
– Exploitation of Platform Mechanics: Threat actors have been found exploiting Moltbook’s platform mechanics to amplify reach and funnel agents toward malicious threads containing prompt injections.
Architectural and Design Concerns
HiddenLayer researchers identified several architectural and design problems in OpenClaw:
– Reliance on Language Models for Security Decisions: OpenClaw relies on the configured language model for many security-critical decisions.
– Lack of Content Filtering: Failure to filter out untrusted content containing control sequences.
– Ineffective Guardrails: Ineffective protections against indirect prompt injections.
– Modifiable Memories and System Prompts: Memories and system prompts that persist into future chat sessions can be modified.
– Plaintext Storage of Sensitive Information: API keys and session tokens are stored in plaintext.
– Lack of User Approval: No explicit user approval before executing tool calls.
Enterprise Security Implications
Persmiso Security emphasized the critical nature of securing the OpenClaw ecosystem, noting that AI agents have extensive access to user data. Unlike browser extensions that run in a sandbox with some level of isolation, these agents operate with the full privileges granted by users.
The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has issued an alert about misconfigured OpenClaw instances, urging users to implement protections against cyber attacks and data breaches.
Ensar Seker, CISO at SOCRadar, highlighted the risks:
When agent platforms go viral faster than security practices mature, misconfiguration becomes the primary attack surface. The risk isn’t the agent itself; it’s exposing autonomous tooling to public networks without hardened identity, access control, and execution boundaries.
Conclusion
OpenClaw’s integration with VirusTotal represents a significant step toward enhancing the security of its ClawHub skill marketplace. However, the evolving nature of cyber threats necessitates continuous vigilance, comprehensive security strategies, and proactive measures to safeguard users and enterprises from potential risks associated
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