OpenClaw's rise draws phishing campaign targeting developers' crypto wallets

Malicious cyber actors are exploiting the growing popularity of the open-source AI agent project OpenClaw with a phishing campaign to drain developers' crypto wallets, cybersecurity firm OX Security said.

In a report published Wednesday, OX said the threat actor created fake GitHub accounts, opened issue threads in attacker-controlled repositories, and tagged dozens of developers claiming they had been selected to receive $5,000 in "CLAW" tokens. 

Attackers directed victims to a malicious site, tricking them into connecting their wallets to claim fraudulent rewards. According to OX, the webpage was an almost identical clone of OpenClaw's official website, but with one critical addition: a "Connect your wallet" button designed to initiate wallet theft. 

OX said the campaign spread via GitHub repositories and email outreach to appear as legitimate extensions or tools tied to the OpenClaw ecosystem. 

The full scale of the activity remains unclear. The Block has reached out to OX Security for further information.

Fraudulent outreach

The phishing campaign coincides with OpenClaw's growing adoption among developers and small businesses seeking to automate workflows. As of today, OpenClaw's GitHub page has gained over 324,000 stars, ranking ninth among all repositories globally.

Last month, OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger joined OpenAI, adding to the project's visibility. Operating under an independent foundation, OpenClaw continues as an open-source initiative supported by OpenAI.

Steinberger recently warned users that any crypto-themed outreach invoking OpenClaw should be treated as fraudulent. 

"Folks, if you get crypto emails from websites claiming to be associated with OpenClaw, it's ALWAYS a scam," Steinberger wrote Wednesday on X, adding that the project is non-commercial and would never conduct such promotions. 

OX also suggested that users block the malicious domains token-claw[.]xyz and watery-compost[.]today, and treat any GitHub issue promoting token giveaways as suspicious.