
Compromised npm package silently installs OpenClaw on developer machines
A new security bypass has users installing AI agent OpenClaw — whether they intended to or not. Researchers have discovered that a compromised npm publish token pushed an update for the widely-used Cline command line interface (CLI) containing a malicious postinstall script. That script installs the wildly popular, but increasingly condemned, agentic application OpenClaw on the unsuspecting user’s machine. This can be extremely dangerous, as OpenClaw has broad system access and deep integrations with messaging platforms including WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, iMessage, Teams, and others. According to research by security platform Socket, the script was live for eight hours on the regis...