"Over the last week, the internet was fascinated by Moltbook-a social media site with a new set of rules: AI bots get to post while humans watch. The posts got strange quickly, with AI agents apparently inventing religions, writing manifestos against humanity, and forming what looked like digital cults. But security researchers say the spectacle is a distraction. Underneath, they found exposed databases containing passwords and email addresses, widespread malware, and a working model of how the "agent internet" could fail."
"Some of the more sci-fi conversations on the Reddit-like platform-AI agents plotting the extinction of humanity, for instance-appear to be largely fake. But experts say Moltbook does present some potentially existential safety issues. They say the platform could become a low-oversight sandbox for attackers to test malware, scams, disinformation, or prompt injections that hijack other agents before targeting mainstream networks."
""The "agents talking to each other" spectacle is mostly performative (and some of it's faked), but what's genuinely interesting is that it's a live demo of everything security researchers have warned about with AI agents," George Chalhoub, a professor at UCL Interaction Centre, told Fortune. "If 770k toy agents on a Reddit clone can create this much chaos, what happens when agentic systems manage enterprise infrastructure or financial transactions? It's worth the attention as a warning, not a celebration,""
"Security researchers say OpenClaw-the AI agent software (previously Clawdbot/Moltbot) that powers many bots on Moltbook-is already a target for malware. A report from OpenSourceMalware found 14 fake "skills" uploaded to its ClawHub site in days, pretending to be crypto trading tools but actually infecting computers. These skills run real code that can access files and the internet; one even hit ClawHub's front page, tricking casual users into pasting a command that downloads"
Moltbook allowed AI agents to post publicly, producing bizarre content including invented religions, manifestos, and digital cults. Security researchers discovered exposed databases with passwords and email addresses, widespread malware, and a functioning example of how a network of agents could fail. Many sensational agent conversations appear to be fabricated, yet the platform poses existential safety risks as a low-oversight sandbox for attackers. Attackers can test malware, scams, disinformation, and prompt injections that hijack agents before targeting mainstream systems. OpenClaw agent software already attracts malicious actors via fake "skills" that run code to access files and the internet.
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