"Moltbot has taken off in a big way, crossing more than 85,000 stars on GitHub as of writing. The open-source project, created by Austrian developer Peter Steinberger, allows users to run a personal AI assistant powered by a large language model (LLM) locally on their own devices and interact with it over already established communication platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Google Chat, Signal, iMessage, Microsoft Teams, and WebChat."
"The malicious extension is designed such that it's automatically executed every time the integrated development environment (IDE) is launched, stealthily retrieving a file named "config.json" from an external server ("clawdbot.getintwopc[.]site") to execute a binary named "Code.exe" that deploys a legitimate remote desktop program like ConnectWise ScreenConnect. The application then connects to the URL "meeting.bulletmailer[.]net:8041," granting the attacker persistent remote access to the compromised host."
Moltbot is an open-source tool that runs a local LLM-powered personal AI assistant and integrates with platforms including WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Google Chat, Signal, iMessage, Microsoft Teams, and WebChat, and has amassed over 85,000 GitHub stars. A malicious Visual Studio Code extension named "ClawdBot Agent - AI Coding Assistant" (clawdbot.clawdbot-agent) was published on January 27, 2026 and later removed from the Marketplace. The extension executed on IDE launch, fetched a config.json from clawdbot.getintwopc[.]site, ran Code.exe to deploy ConnectWise ScreenConnect, and connected to meeting.bulletmailer[.]net:8041 to provide attackers persistent remote access. Moltbot has no legitimate VS Code extension, indicating impersonation by threat actors.
Read at The Hacker News
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]