{
 "public_id": "AIR-2026-0074",
 "incident_id": "2026-03-openclaw-agentworm",
 "date_disclosed": "2026-03-16",
 "date_occurred": null,
 "title": "AgentWorm / ClawWorm: self-propagating worm across OpenClaw agent ecosystems",
 "class": "research_demo",
 "attack_surface": "agent_framework",
 "initial_vector": "indirect_prompt_injection_agent_to_agent",
 "agent_capability_abused": [
  "config_file_write",
  "persistence_across_restart",
  "peer_agent_messaging",
  "code_execution"
 ],
 "target_product": "OpenClaw",
 "target_vendor": "OpenClaw (open-source project)",
 "autonomy_level": "fully_autonomous",
 "impact_realized": false,
 "impact_type": [
  "self_propagation",
  "code_execution",
  "persistence"
 ],
 "blast_radius": "OpenClaw ecosystem; paper cites over 40,000 active instances",
 "cve": [],
 "taxonomy": {
  "owasp_asi": [
   "ASI01",
   "ASI04",
   "ASI07",
   "ASI05",
   "ASI08"
  ],
  "mitre_atlas": [],
  "labels": [
   "worm",
   "self_replicating_prompt",
   "cross_agent_contagion",
   "config_hijack"
  ]
 },
 "defense_present": null,
 "defense_bypassed": true,
 "fix_shipped": null,
 "primary_sources": [
  "https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.15727",
  "https://labs.cloudsecurityalliance.org/research/csa-research-note-clawworm-selfpropagating-llm-agent-worm-20/"
 ],
 "verified_quote": "OpenClaw, an open-source platform with over 40,000 active instances",
 "confidence": "high",
 "notes": "Zhang, Wei, Luan, Wu, Zhang, Wu, Wu, Chen, Sun, Sun. arXiv 2603.15727, submitted 16 Mar 2026, v3 16 Jul 2026. Abstract reports 'a 63% aggregate attack success rate' across five LLM backends, three infection vectors and three payload types, with cross-framework validation on Hermes Agent. ALIAS: the Cloud Security Alliance research note covers the same work as 'ClawWorm' and quotes an 85% success rate for the broadcast-infection variant - treat ClawWorm and AgentWorm as ONE incident. Evaluated on a controlled testbed, not against live third-party instances.",
 "risk_category": "security_fraud",
 "risk_secondary": [],
 "risk_subcategory": "Prompt Injection",
 "risk_sub_secondary": [
  "Remote Code Execution & Sandbox Escape",
  "Persistence & Covert C2",
  "Multi-agent contagion"
 ],
 "ai_entity": "generative",
 "agency": "agent_acted",
 "agency_debatable": false,
 "agency_reason": "agents wrote config, messaged peers and propagated themselves",
 "vector_family": "indirect_prompt_injection",
 "vector_detail": "indirect_prompt_injection_agent_to_agent",
 "guardrail_kind": [
  "unknown"
 ],
 "guardrail_outcome": "silent",
 "xrefs": {
  "aiid": [],
  "atlas": [],
  "cve": [],
  "ghsa": []
 },
 "primary_asi": "ASI01",
 "agent_framework": "openclaw",
 "model_provider": "unknown",
 "model_name": "",
 "detection_mechanism": "academic_study",
 "tool_access": "unknown",
 "financial_loss_band": "unknown",
 "eai_category": "privilege_escalation",
 "eai_domain": "access_control_and_permissions",
 "eai_secondary": [
  "confused_deputy"
 ],
 "eai_reason": "impact rule: privilege_escalation",
 "asi_curated": [
  "ASI01",
  "ASI04"
 ],
 "asi_scope": "in_scope",
 "asi_provenance": "curated_plus_rule",
 "asi_reason": "curated: ASI01,ASI04 | added ASI07 (vector=inter_agent), ASI05 (impact=code_exec), ASI08 (signal=cascade)",
 "submitted_by": "EAI Internal"
}