Threat model (MITRE ATLAS) — openclaw

Version: 1.0-draft | Framework: MITRE ATLAS (Adversarial Threat Landscape for AI Systems) + data flow diagrams

This threat model documents adversarial threats to the OpenClaw AI agent platform and ClawHub skill marketplace. It is a living document maintained by the OpenClaw community. See Contributing to the threat model for how to report new threats, propose attack chains, or suggest mitigations.

Key ATLAS resources: Techniques | Tactics | Case studies | ATLAS GitHub | Contributing to ATLAS

1. Scope

Component	Included	Notes
OpenClaw agent runtime	Yes	Core agent execution, tool calls, sessions
Gateway	Yes	Authentication, routing, channel integration
Channel integrations	Yes	WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Signal, Slack, etc.
ClawHub marketplace	Yes	Skill publishing, moderation, distribution
MCP servers	Yes	External tool providers
User devices	Partial	Mobile apps, desktop clients

Out-of-scope reports and false-positive patterns (public internet exposure, prompt-injection-only chains without a boundary bypass, mutually untrusted operators sharing one gateway host, and others) are enumerated in SECURITY.md; that file is the current source of truth for vulnerability-report scope, not this page.

2. System architecture

2.1 Trust boundaries

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    UNTRUSTED ZONE                                │
│  ┌─────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐              │
│  │  WhatsApp   │  │  Telegram   │  │   Discord   │  ...         │
│  └──────┬──────┘  └──────┬──────┘  └──────┬──────┘              │
│         │                │                │                      │
└─────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼──────────────────────┘
          │                │                │
          ▼                ▼                ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                 TRUST BOUNDARY 1: Channel Access                 │
│  ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐   │
│  │                      GATEWAY                              │   │
│  │  • Device pairing (1h DM pairing / 5m node pairing TTL)   │   │
│  │  • AllowFrom / allowlist validation                       │   │
│  │  • Token / password / Tailscale auth                      │   │
│  └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │
                              ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                 TRUST BOUNDARY 2: Session Isolation              │
│  ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐   │
│  │                   AGENT SESSIONS                          │   │
│  │  • Session key = agent:channel:peer                       │   │
│  │  • Tool policies per agent                                │   │
│  │  • Transcript logging                                     │   │
│  └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │
                              ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                 TRUST BOUNDARY 3: Tool Execution                 │
│  ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐   │
│  │                  EXECUTION SANDBOX                        │   │
│  │  • Docker sandbox (default) or host (exec approvals)      │   │
│  │  • Node remote execution                                  │   │
│  │  • SSRF protection (DNS pinning + IP blocking)            │   │
│  └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │
                              ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                 TRUST BOUNDARY 4: External Content               │
│  ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐   │
│  │              FETCHED URLs / EMAILS / WEBHOOKS             │   │
│  │  • External content wrapping (random-boundary XML tags)   │   │
│  │  • Security notice injection                              │   │
│  └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │
                              ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                 TRUST BOUNDARY 5: Supply Chain                   │
│  ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐   │
│  │                      CLAWHUB                              │   │
│  │  • Skill publishing (semver, SKILL.md required)           │   │
│  │  • Static pattern + AST-adjacent moderation scanning      │   │
│  │  • LLM-based agentic risk review + VirusTotal scanning    │   │
│  │  • GitHub account age verification (14 days)              │   │
│  └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

2.2 Data flows

Flow	Source	Destination	Data	Protection
F1	Channel	Gateway	User messages	TLS, AllowFrom
F2	Gateway	Agent	Routed messages	Session isolation
F3	Agent	Tools	Tool invocations	Policy enforcement
F4	Agent	External	`web_fetch` requests	SSRF blocking
F5	ClawHub	Agent	Skill code	Moderation, scanning
F6	Agent	Channel	Responses	Output filtering

3. Threat analysis by ATLAS tactic

3.1 Reconnaissance (AML.TA0002)

T-RECON-001: Agent endpoint discovery

Attribute	Value
ATLAS ID	AML.T0006 - Active Scanning
Description	Attacker scans for exposed OpenClaw gateway endpoints
Attack vector	Network scanning, Shodan queries, DNS enumeration
Affected components	Gateway, exposed API endpoints
Current mitigations	Tailscale auth option, bind to loopback by default
Residual risk	Medium - public gateways discoverable
Recommendations	Document secure deployment, add rate limiting on discovery endpoints

T-RECON-002: Channel integration probing

Attribute	Value
ATLAS ID	AML.T0006 - Active Scanning
Description	Attacker probes messaging channels to identify AI-managed accounts
Attack vector	Sending test messages, observing response patterns
Affected components	All channel integrations
Current mitigations	None specific
Residual risk	Low - limited value from discovery alone
Recommendations	Consider response timing randomization

3.2 Initial access (AML.TA0004)

T-ACCESS-001: Pairing code interception

Attribute	Value
ATLAS ID	AML.T0040 - AI Model Inference API Access
Description	Attacker intercepts a pairing code during the pairing window (1h DM/generic pairing, 5m node pairing)
Attack vector	Shoulder surfing, network sniffing, social engineering
Affected components	Device pairing system
Current mitigations	1h TTL (DM/generic pairing), 5m TTL (node pairing); codes sent via the existing channel
Residual risk	Medium - pairing window exploitable
Recommendations	Reduce pairing window, add a confirmation step

T-ACCESS-002: AllowFrom spoofing

Attribute	Value
ATLAS ID	AML.T0040 - AI Model Inference API Access
Description	Attacker spoofs an allowed sender identity on a channel
Attack vector	Channel-dependent - phone number spoofing, username impersonation
Affected components	Per-channel AllowFrom validation
Current mitigations	Channel-specific identity verification
Residual risk	Medium - some channels remain vulnerable to spoofing
Recommendations	Document channel-specific risks, add cryptographic verification where possible

T-ACCESS-003: Token theft

Attribute	Value
ATLAS ID	AML.T0040 - AI Model Inference API Access
Description	Attacker steals authentication tokens from config/credential files
Attack vector	Malware, unauthorized device access, config backup exposure
Affected components	Channel/provider credential storage, config storage
Current mitigations	File permissions
Residual risk	High - tokens stored in plaintext on disk
Recommendations	Implement token encryption at rest, add token rotation

3.3 Execution (AML.TA0005)

T-EXEC-001: Direct prompt injection

Attribute	Value
ATLAS ID	AML.T0051.000 - LLM Prompt Injection: Direct
Description	Attacker sends crafted prompts to manipulate agent behavior
Attack vector	Channel messages containing adversarial instructions
Affected components	Agent LLM, all input surfaces
Current mitigations	Pattern detection, external content wrapping; treated as out-of-scope for vulnerability reports absent a boundary bypass (see `SECURITY.md`)
Residual risk	Critical - detection only, no blocking; sophisticated attacks bypass
Recommendations	Output validation and user confirmation for sensitive actions, layered on top of existing detection

T-EXEC-002: Indirect prompt injection

Attribute	Value
ATLAS ID	AML.T0051.001 - LLM Prompt Injection: Indirect
Description	Attacker embeds malicious instructions in fetched content
Attack vector	Malicious URLs, poisoned emails, compromised webhooks
Affected components	`web_fetch`, email ingestion, external data sources
Current mitigations	Content wrapping with random-boundary XML-style markers, homoglyph/special-token normalization, and a security notice
Residual risk	High - LLM may still ignore wrapper instructions
Recommendations	Separate execution contexts for wrapped content

T-EXEC-003: Tool argument injection

Attribute	Value
ATLAS ID	AML.T0051.000 - LLM Prompt Injection: Direct
Description	Attacker manipulates tool arguments through prompt injection
Attack vector	Crafted prompts that influence tool parameter values
Affected components	All tool invocations
Current mitigations	Exec approvals for dangerous commands
Residual risk	High - relies on user judgment
Recommendations	Argument validation, parameterized tool calls

T-EXEC-004: Exec approval bypass

Attribute	Value
ATLAS ID	AML.T0043 - Craft Adversarial Data
Description	Attacker crafts commands that bypass the approval allowlist
Attack vector	Command obfuscation, alias exploitation, path manipulation
Affected components	`src/infra/exec-approvals*.ts`, command allowlist
Current mitigations	Allowlist + ask mode, plus command normalization (dispatch-wrapper unwrapping, inline-eval detection, shell-chain analysis)
Residual risk	High - normalization narrows but does not eliminate obfuscation bypass; parity-only findings between exec paths are treated as hardening, not vulnerabilities (see `SECURITY.md`)
Recommendations	Continue expanding command-normalization coverage against new obfuscation techniques

3.4 Persistence (AML.TA0006)

T-PERSIST-001: Malicious skill installation

Attribute	Value
ATLAS ID	AML.T0010.001 - Supply Chain Compromise: AI Software
Description	Attacker publishes a malicious skill to ClawHub
Attack vector	Create account, publish skill with hidden malicious code
Affected components	ClawHub, skill loading, agent execution
Current mitigations	GitHub account age verification, static pattern/AST-adjacent scanning, LLM-based agentic risk review, VirusTotal scanning
Residual risk	High - detection layers exist but skills still run with agent privileges and no execution sandboxing
Recommendations	Skill execution sandboxing, expanded community review

T-PERSIST-002: Skill update poisoning

Attribute	Value
ATLAS ID	AML.T0010.001 - Supply Chain Compromise: AI Software
Description	Attacker compromises a popular skill and pushes a malicious update
Attack vector	Account compromise, social engineering of skill owner
Affected components	ClawHub versioning, auto-update flows
Current mitigations	Version fingerprinting, moderation/scanning re-run on new versions
Residual risk	High - auto-updates may pull malicious versions before review completes
Recommendations	Update signing, rollback capability, version pinning

T-PERSIST-003: Agent configuration tampering

Attribute	Value
ATLAS ID	AML.T0010.002 - Supply Chain Compromise: Data
Description	Attacker modifies agent configuration to persist access
Attack vector	Config file modification, settings injection
Affected components	Agent config, tool policies
Current mitigations	File permissions
Residual risk	Medium - requires local access
Recommendations	Config integrity verification, audit logging for config changes

3.5 Defense evasion (AML.TA0007)

T-EVADE-001: Moderation pattern bypass

Attribute	Value
ATLAS ID	AML.T0043 - Craft Adversarial Data
Description	Attacker crafts skill content to evade ClawHub moderation checks
Attack vector	Unicode homoglyphs, encoding tricks, dynamic loading
Affected components	ClawHub moderation/scanning pipeline
Current mitigations	Static pattern rules, AST-adjacent code scanning, LLM agentic-risk review, VirusTotal
Residual risk	Medium - novel obfuscation can still slip past layered heuristics
Recommendations	Continue expanding the pattern/behavioral corpus as new evasions are found

T-EVADE-002: Content wrapper escape

Attribute	Value
ATLAS ID	AML.T0043 - Craft Adversarial Data
Description	Attacker crafts content that escapes the external-content wrapper context
Attack vector	Tag manipulation, context confusion, instruction override
Affected components	External content wrapping
Current mitigations	Random-boundary XML-style markers + security notice, plus homoglyph/whitespace-variant marker-spoof detection
Residual risk	Medium - novel escapes discovered regularly
Recommendations	Output-side validation in addition to input-side wrapping

3.6 Discovery (AML.TA0008)

T-DISC-001: Tool enumeration

Attribute	Value
ATLAS ID	AML.T0040 - AI Model Inference API Access
Description	Attacker enumerates available tools through prompting
Attack vector	"What tools do you have?" style queries
Affected components	Agent tool registry
Current mitigations	None specific
Residual risk	Low - tools are generally documented
Recommendations	Consider tool visibility controls

T-DISC-002: Session data extraction

Attribute	Value
ATLAS ID	AML.T0040 - AI Model Inference API Access
Description	Attacker extracts sensitive data from session context
Attack vector	"What did we discuss?" queries, context probing
Affected components	Session transcripts, context window
Current mitigations	Session isolation per sender (`agent:channel:peer` key)
Residual risk	Medium - within-session data is accessible by design
Recommendations	Sensitive-data redaction in context

3.7 Collection and exfiltration (AML.TA0009, AML.TA0010)

T-EXFIL-001: Data theft via web_fetch

Attribute	Value
ATLAS ID	AML.T0009 - Collection
Description	Attacker exfiltrates data by instructing the agent to send it to an external URL
Attack vector	Prompt injection causing the agent to POST data to an attacker server
Affected components	`web_fetch` tool
Current mitigations	SSRF blocking for internal/private networks (DNS pinning + IP blocking)
Residual risk	High - arbitrary external URLs remain permitted
Recommendations	URL allowlisting, data-classification awareness

T-EXFIL-002: Unauthorized message sending

Attribute	Value
ATLAS ID	AML.T0009 - Collection
Description	Attacker causes the agent to send messages containing sensitive data
Attack vector	Prompt injection causing the agent to message the attacker
Affected components	Message tool, channel integrations
Current mitigations	Outbound messaging gating
Residual risk	Medium - gating may be bypassed
Recommendations	Explicit confirmation for new recipients

T-EXFIL-003: Credential harvesting

Attribute	Value
ATLAS ID	AML.T0009 - Collection
Description	Malicious skill harvests credentials from the agent context
Attack vector	Skill code reads environment variables, config files
Affected components	Skill execution environment
Current mitigations	ClawHub credential-pattern scanning (hardcoded secrets, credential env access paired with network sends); no execution sandboxing for skills at runtime
Residual risk	Critical - skills run with agent privileges
Recommendations	Skill execution sandboxing, credential isolation

3.8 Impact (AML.TA0011)

T-IMPACT-001: Unauthorized command execution

Attribute	Value
ATLAS ID	AML.T0031 - Erode AI Model Integrity
Description	Attacker executes arbitrary commands on the user system
Attack vector	Prompt injection combined with exec approval bypass
Affected components	Bash tool, command execution
Current mitigations	Exec approvals, Docker sandbox option (default runtime backend)
Residual risk	Critical - host execution possible when sandbox is disabled
Recommendations	Improve approval UX; sandbox-off deployments remain a deliberate operator choice, documented as such

T-IMPACT-002: Resource exhaustion (DoS)

Attribute	Value
ATLAS ID	AML.T0031 - Erode AI Model Integrity
Description	Attacker exhausts API credits or compute resources
Attack vector	Automated message flooding, expensive tool calls
Affected components	Gateway, agent sessions, API provider
Current mitigations	None
Residual risk	High - no per-sender rate limiting
Recommendations	Per-sender rate limits, cost budgets

T-IMPACT-003: Reputation damage

Attribute	Value
ATLAS ID	AML.T0031 - Erode AI Model Integrity
Description	Attacker causes the agent to send harmful/offensive content
Attack vector	Prompt injection causing inappropriate responses
Affected components	Output generation, channel messaging
Current mitigations	LLM provider content policies
Residual risk	Medium - provider filters are imperfect
Recommendations	Output filtering layer, user controls

4. ClawHub supply chain analysis

4.1 Current security controls

Control	Implementation	Effectiveness
GitHub account age	`requireGitHubAccountAge()` (14-day minimum)	Medium - raises the bar for new attackers
Path sanitization	`sanitizePath()`	High - prevents path traversal
File type validation	`isTextFile()`	Medium - only text files scanned, but still exploitable
Size limits	50MB total bundle (`MAX_PUBLISH_TOTAL_BYTES`)	High - prevents resource exhaustion
Required SKILL.md	Mandatory readme on publish	Low security value - informational only
Static + AST-adjacent scanning	Pattern engine covering exec, exfiltration, credential-harvest, obfuscation, and more	Medium-High - covers many known abuse patterns, still pattern-based
LLM-based agentic risk review	Security-prompt-driven verdict on publish	Medium-High - catches behavior static patterns miss
VirusTotal scanning	Wired to skill and package-release publish/rescan flows, gated on operator API key	High when enabled - static engine detection
Moderation status	`moderationStatus` field	Medium - manual review possible

4.2 Moderation limitations

ClawHub's static scanning inspects skill code content directly (not just slug/metadata/frontmatter), covering dangerous exec calls, dynamic code execution, credential harvesting, exfiltration patterns, obfuscated payloads, and more. Known gaps:

Pattern-based detection can still be bypassed by sufficiently novel obfuscation.
LLM-based review and VirusTotal scanning depend on operator-side API keys/config being enabled.
No runtime execution sandbox isolates a skill from the agent's own privileges once installed.

4.3 Badges

Skills and packages carry moderator-assigned badges: highlighted, official, deprecated, redactionApproved (skills only). Community reporting (skillReports) and audit logging (auditLogs) back moderation workflows.

5. Risk matrix

5.1 Likelihood vs impact

Threat ID	Likelihood	Impact	Risk level	Priority
T-EXEC-001	High	Critical	Critical	P0
T-PERSIST-001	High	Critical	Critical	P0
T-EXFIL-003	Medium	Critical	Critical	P0
T-IMPACT-001	Medium	Critical	High	P1
T-EXEC-002	High	High	High	P1
T-EXEC-004	Medium	High	High	P1
T-ACCESS-003	Medium	High	High	P1
T-EXFIL-001	Medium	High	High	P1
T-IMPACT-002	High	Medium	High	P1
T-EVADE-001	High	Medium	Medium	P2
T-ACCESS-001	Low	High	Medium	P2
T-ACCESS-002	Low	High	Medium	P2
T-PERSIST-002	Low	High	Medium	P2

5.2 Critical path attack chains

Chain 1: Skill-based data theft

T-PERSIST-001 → T-EVADE-001 → T-EXFIL-003
(Publish malicious skill) → (Evade moderation) → (Harvest credentials)

Chain 2: Prompt injection to RCE

T-EXEC-001 → T-EXEC-004 → T-IMPACT-001
(Inject prompt) → (Bypass exec approval) → (Execute commands)

Chain 3: Indirect injection via fetched content

T-EXEC-002 → T-EXFIL-001 → External exfiltration
(Poison URL content) → (Agent fetches & follows instructions) → (Data sent to attacker)

6. Recommendations summary

6.1 Immediate (P0)

ID	Recommendation	Addresses
R-002	Implement skill execution sandboxing	T-PERSIST-001, T-EXFIL-003
R-003	Add output validation for sensitive actions	T-EXEC-001, T-EXEC-002

6.2 Short-term (P1)

ID	Recommendation	Addresses
R-004	Implement per-sender rate limiting	T-IMPACT-002
R-005	Add token encryption at rest	T-ACCESS-003
R-006	Improve exec approval UX and continue expanding command normalization	T-EXEC-004
R-007	Implement URL allowlisting for `web_fetch`	T-EXFIL-001

6.3 Medium-term (P2)

ID	Recommendation	Addresses
R-008	Add cryptographic channel verification where possible	T-ACCESS-002
R-009	Implement config integrity verification	T-PERSIST-003
R-010	Add update signing and version pinning	T-PERSIST-002

7. Appendices

7.1 ATLAS technique mapping

ATLAS ID	Technique name	OpenClaw threats
AML.T0006	Active Scanning	T-RECON-001, T-RECON-002
AML.T0009	Collection	T-EXFIL-001, T-EXFIL-002, T-EXFIL-003
AML.T0010.001	Supply Chain: AI Software	T-PERSIST-001, T-PERSIST-002
AML.T0010.002	Supply Chain: Data	T-PERSIST-003
AML.T0031	Erode AI Model Integrity	T-IMPACT-001, T-IMPACT-002, T-IMPACT-003
AML.T0040	AI Model Inference API Access	T-ACCESS-001, T-ACCESS-002, T-ACCESS-003, T-DISC-001, T-DISC-002
AML.T0043	Craft Adversarial Data	T-EXEC-004, T-EVADE-001, T-EVADE-002
AML.T0051.000	LLM Prompt Injection: Direct	T-EXEC-001, T-EXEC-003
AML.T0051.001	LLM Prompt Injection: Indirect	T-EXEC-002

7.2 Key security files

Path	Purpose	Risk level
`src/infra/exec-approvals.ts`	Command approval logic	Critical
`src/gateway/auth.ts`	Gateway authentication	Critical
`src/infra/net/ssrf.ts`	SSRF protection	Critical
`src/security/external-content.ts`	Prompt injection mitigation	Critical
`src/agents/sandbox/tool-policy.ts`	Sandbox tool allow/deny policy	Critical
`src/routing/resolve-route.ts`	Session isolation / routing	Medium

7.3 Glossary

Term	Definition
ATLAS	MITRE's Adversarial Threat Landscape for AI Systems
ClawHub	OpenClaw's skill marketplace
Gateway	OpenClaw's message routing and authentication layer
MCP	Model Context Protocol - tool provider interface
Prompt injection	Attack where malicious instructions are embedded in input
Skill	Downloadable extension for OpenClaw agents
SSRF	Server-Side Request Forgery

This threat model is a living document. Report security issues to security@openclaw.ai or see the Trust page.

Source: docs/security/THREAT-MODEL-ATLAS.md