Uncovering Security Threats and Architecting Defenses in Autonomous Agents: A Case Study of OpenClaw
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arXiv
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| Autori principali: | , , , , , , , , , |
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| Natura: | Preprint |
| Pubblicazione: |
2026
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| _version_ | 1866910051604627456 |
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| author | Ying, Zonghao Yang, Xiao Wu, Siyang Song, Yumeng Qu, Yang Li, Hainan Li, Tianlin Wang, Jiakai Liu, Aishan Liu, Xianglong |
| author_facet | Ying, Zonghao Yang, Xiao Wu, Siyang Song, Yumeng Qu, Yang Li, Hainan Li, Tianlin Wang, Jiakai Liu, Aishan Liu, Xianglong |
| contents | The rapid evolution of Large Language Models (LLMs) into autonomous, tool-calling agents has fundamentally altered the cybersecurity landscape. Frameworks like OpenClaw grant AI systems operating-system-level permissions and the autonomy to execute complex workflows. This level of access creates unprecedented security challenges. Consequently, traditional content-filtering defenses have become obsolete. This report presents a comprehensive security analysis of the OpenClaw ecosystem. We systematically investigate its current threat landscape, highlighting critical vulnerabilities such as prompt injection-driven Remote Code Execution (RCE), sequential tool attack chains, context amnesia, and supply chain contamination. To systematically contextualize these threats, we propose a novel tri-layered risk taxonomy for autonomous Agents, categorizing vulnerabilities across AI Cognitive, Software Execution, and Information System dimensions. To address these systemic architectural flaws, we introduce the Full-Lifecycle Agent Security Architecture (FASA). This theoretical defense blueprint advocates for zero-trust agentic execution, dynamic intent verification, and cross-layer reasoning-action correlation. Building on this framework, we present Project ClawGuard, our ongoing engineering initiative. This project aims to implement the FASA paradigm and transition autonomous agents from high-risk experimental utilities into trustworthy systems. Our code and dataset are available at https://github.com/NY1024/ClawGuard. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_12644 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Uncovering Security Threats and Architecting Defenses in Autonomous Agents: A Case Study of OpenClaw Ying, Zonghao Yang, Xiao Wu, Siyang Song, Yumeng Qu, Yang Li, Hainan Li, Tianlin Wang, Jiakai Liu, Aishan Liu, Xianglong Cryptography and Security The rapid evolution of Large Language Models (LLMs) into autonomous, tool-calling agents has fundamentally altered the cybersecurity landscape. Frameworks like OpenClaw grant AI systems operating-system-level permissions and the autonomy to execute complex workflows. This level of access creates unprecedented security challenges. Consequently, traditional content-filtering defenses have become obsolete. This report presents a comprehensive security analysis of the OpenClaw ecosystem. We systematically investigate its current threat landscape, highlighting critical vulnerabilities such as prompt injection-driven Remote Code Execution (RCE), sequential tool attack chains, context amnesia, and supply chain contamination. To systematically contextualize these threats, we propose a novel tri-layered risk taxonomy for autonomous Agents, categorizing vulnerabilities across AI Cognitive, Software Execution, and Information System dimensions. To address these systemic architectural flaws, we introduce the Full-Lifecycle Agent Security Architecture (FASA). This theoretical defense blueprint advocates for zero-trust agentic execution, dynamic intent verification, and cross-layer reasoning-action correlation. Building on this framework, we present Project ClawGuard, our ongoing engineering initiative. This project aims to implement the FASA paradigm and transition autonomous agents from high-risk experimental utilities into trustworthy systems. Our code and dataset are available at https://github.com/NY1024/ClawGuard. |
| title | Uncovering Security Threats and Architecting Defenses in Autonomous Agents: A Case Study of OpenClaw |
| topic | Cryptography and Security |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.12644 |