From Assistant to Double Agent: Formalizing and Benchmarking Attacks on OpenClaw for Personalized Local AI Agent
On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Agent threats, guardrails and governance
Abstract (arXiv)
Although large language model (LLM)-based agents, exemplified by OpenClaw, are increasingly evolving from task-oriented systems into personalized AI assistants for solving complex real-world tasks, their practical deployment also introduces severe security risks. However, existing agent security research and evaluation frameworks primarily focus on synthetic or task-centric settings, and thus fail to accurately capture the attack surface and risk propagation mechanisms of personalized agents in real-world deployments. To address this gap, we propose Personalized Agent Security Bench (PASB), an end-to-end security evaluation framework tailored for real-world personalized agents. Building upon existing agent attack paradigms, PASB incorporates personalized usage scenarios, realistic toolchains, and long-horizon interactions, enabling black-box, end-to-end security evaluation on real systems. Using OpenClaw as a representative case study, we systematically evaluate its security across multiple personalized scenarios, tool capabilities, and attack types. Our results indicate that OpenClaw exhibits critical vulnerabilities at different execution stages, including user prompt processing, tool usage, and memory retrieval, highlighting substantial security risks in personalized agent deployments. The code for the proposed PASB framework is available at https://github.com/AstorYH/PASB.
Key facts. Cited by 27 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Agent threats, guardrails and governance, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 19 of its 22 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 9 Feb 2026.
Builds on
19 of 22 references.
Closest ancestors · 4
Same direction, newest first
- 2026BackdoorAgent: A Unified Framework for Backdoor Attacks on LLM-based Agents8 Jan
- 2024Agent Security Bench (ASB): Formalizing and Benchmarking Attacks and Defenses in LLM-based Agents3 Oct
- 2024AgentPoison: Red-teaming LLM Agents via Poisoning Memory or Knowledge Bases17 Jul
- 2024InjecAgent: Benchmarking Indirect Prompt Injections in Tool-Integrated Large Language Model Agents5 Mar
Other references · 15
- 2022Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Modelscited by 12,302
- 2023Judging LLM-as-a-Judge with MT-Bench and Chatbot Arenacited by 8,393
- 2022ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Modelscited by 8,355
- 2023Toolformer: Language Models Can Teach Themselves to Use Toolscited by 4,072
- 2023Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behaviorcited by 3,500
- 2023A Survey on Large Language Model based Autonomous Agentscited by 2,203
- 2023MetaGPT: Meta Programming for A Multi-Agent Collaborative Frameworkcited by 1,761
- 2023Not what you've signed up for: Compromising Real-World LLM-Integrated Applications with Indirect Prompt Injectioncited by 1,339
- 2023AgentBench: Evaluating LLMs as Agentscited by 1,211
- 2023Mind2Web: Towards a Generalist Agent for the Webcited by 1,210
- 2023GAIA: a benchmark for General AI Assistantscited by 1,084
- 2023BloombergGPT: A Large Language Model for Financecited by 923
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Citing papers per year: 2026: 27.
27 papers.
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- 2026ClawsBench: Evaluating Capability and Safety of LLM Productivity Agents in Simulated Workspacescited by 31
- 2026Taming OpenClaw: Security Analysis and Mitigation of Autonomous LLM Agent Threatscited by 25
- 2026ClawKeeper: Comprehensive Safety Protection for OpenClaw Agents Through Skills, Plugins, and Watcherscited by 18
- 2026ClawSafety: "Safe" LLMs, Unsafe Agentscited by 15
- 2026A Systematic Security Evaluation of OpenClaw and Its Variantscited by 11
- 2026Trojan's Whisper: Stealthy Manipulation of OpenClaw through Injected Bootstrapped Guidancecited by 8
- 2026LiveClawBench: Benchmarking LLM Agents on Complex, Real-World Assistant Taskscited by 6
- 2026Mind Your HEARTBEAT! Claw Background Execution Inherently Enables Silent Memory Pollutioncited by 5
- 2026Toward Secure LLM Agents: Threat Surfaces, Attacks, Defenses, and Evaluationcited by 5
- 2026LivePI: More Realistic Benchmarking of Agents Against Indirect Prompt Injectioncited by 3
- 2026"What Did It Actually Do?": Understanding Risk Awareness and Traceability for Computer-Use Agentscited by 2
- 2026ASEval: Automated Trajectory-Level Security Testing for Autonomous Agentscited by 2
15 more
- 2026SafeClawBench: Separating Semantic, Audit-Evidence, and Sandbox Harm in Tool-Using LLM Agentscited by 2
- 2026When Claws Remember but Do Not Tell: Stealthy Memory Injection in Persistent Personal Agentscited by 2
- 2026UniClawBench: A Universal Benchmark for Proactive Agents on Real-World Taskscited by 2
- 2026How do AI agents talk about science and research? An exploration of scientific discussions on Moltbook using BERTopiccited by 1
- 2026When Routine Chats Turn Toxic: Unintended Long-Term State Poisoning in Personalized Agentscited by 1
- 2026Security of OpenClaw Agents: Fundamentals, Attacks, and Countermeasurescited by 1
- 2026Security Attack and Defense Strategies for Autonomous Agent Frameworks: A Layered Review with OpenClaw as a Case Studycited by 0
- 2026Securing Computer-Use Agents: A Unified Architecture-Lifecycle Framework for Deployment-Grounded Reliabilitycited by 0
- 2026JANUS: Foreseeing Latent Risk for Long-Horizon Agent Safetycited by 0
- 2026ASTELD: A Six-Axis Classification Framework for Autonomous AI Agents - Design, Evaluation, and an OpenClaw Case Studycited by 0
- 2026SynChain: Inducing Computer-Use Agent Systems to Construct Their Own Attack Chainscited by 0
- 2026HarnessRisk: A Lifecycle-Oriented Benchmark for Agent Harness Safetycited by 0
- 2026A Blind Trust, the Bloody Thrust: When Attacker-Controlled Hook Updates Steer AI Agent Harnesses towards Malicious Behaviorscited by 0
- 2026AgentKernel: The Trust-Native Agentic Operating Systemcited by 0
- 2026PACE: Provenance-Aware Capability Enforcement for Tool-Using LLM Agentscited by 0
- 2026PACE: Provenance-Aware Capability Enforcement for Tool-Using LLM Agents1 Oct 2026
- 2026A Blind Trust, the Bloody Thrust: When Attacker-Controlled Hook Updates Steer AI Agent Harnesses towards Malicious Behaviors3 Sep 2026
- 2026AgentKernel: The Trust-Native Agentic Operating System29 Aug 2026
- 2026HarnessRisk: A Lifecycle-Oriented Benchmark for Agent Harness Safety18 Aug 2026
- 2026SynChain: Inducing Computer-Use Agent Systems to Construct Their Own Attack Chains7 Aug 2026
- 2026ASTELD: A Six-Axis Classification Framework for Autonomous AI Agents - Design, Evaluation, and an OpenClaw Case Study5 Aug 2026
- 2026JANUS: Foreseeing Latent Risk for Long-Horizon Agent Safety22 Jul 2026
- 2026UniClawBench: A Universal Benchmark for Proactive Agents on Real-World Tasks9 Jul 2026
- 2026When Claws Remember but Do Not Tell: Stealthy Memory Injection in Persistent Personal Agents6 Jul 2026
- 2026SafeClawBench: Separating Semantic, Audit-Evidence, and Sandbox Harm in Tool-Using LLM Agents16 Jun 2026
- 2026Toward Secure LLM Agents: Threat Surfaces, Attacks, Defenses, and Evaluation9 Jun 2026
- 2026Security of OpenClaw Agents: Fundamentals, Attacks, and Countermeasures25 May 2026
15 more
- 2026ASEval: Automated Trajectory-Level Security Testing for Autonomous Agents21 May 2026
- 2026LivePI: More Realistic Benchmarking of Agents Against Indirect Prompt Injection18 May 2026
- 2026Securing Computer-Use Agents: A Unified Architecture-Lifecycle Framework for Deployment-Grounded Reliability8 May 2026
- 2026When Routine Chats Turn Toxic: Unintended Long-Term State Poisoning in Personalized Agents7 May 2026
- 2026Security Attack and Defense Strategies for Autonomous Agent Frameworks: A Layered Review with OpenClaw as a Case Study30 Apr 2026
- 2026ClawsBench: Evaluating Capability and Safety of LLM Productivity Agents in Simulated Workspaces6 Apr 2026
- 2026A Systematic Security Evaluation of OpenClaw and Its Variants3 Apr 2026
- 2026ClawSafety: "Safe" LLMs, Unsafe Agents1 Apr 2026
- 2026"What Did It Actually Do?": Understanding Risk Awareness and Traceability for Computer-Use Agents30 Mar 2026
- 2026ClawKeeper: Comprehensive Safety Protection for OpenClaw Agents Through Skills, Plugins, and Watchers25 Mar 2026
- 2026Mind Your HEARTBEAT! Claw Background Execution Inherently Enables Silent Memory Pollution24 Mar 2026
- 2026LiveClawBench: Benchmarking LLM Agents on Complex, Real-World Assistant Tasks20 Mar 2026
- 2026Trojan's Whisper: Stealthy Manipulation of OpenClaw through Injected Bootstrapped Guidance20 Mar 2026
- 2026Taming OpenClaw: Security Analysis and Mitigation of Autonomous LLM Agent Threats12 Mar 2026
- 2026How do AI agents talk about science and research? An exploration of scientific discussions on Moltbook using BERTopic11 Mar 2026
- 2026ClawsBench: Evaluating Capability and Safety of LLM Productivity Agents in Simulated Workspacescited by 31
- 2026Taming OpenClaw: Security Analysis and Mitigation of Autonomous LLM Agent Threatscited by 25
- 2026ClawSafety: "Safe" LLMs, Unsafe Agentscited by 15
- 2026Trojan's Whisper: Stealthy Manipulation of OpenClaw through Injected Bootstrapped Guidancecited by 8
- 2026LiveClawBench: Benchmarking LLM Agents on Complex, Real-World Assistant Taskscited by 6
- 2026Toward Secure LLM Agents: Threat Surfaces, Attacks, Defenses, and Evaluationcited by 5
- 2026LivePI: More Realistic Benchmarking of Agents Against Indirect Prompt Injectioncited by 3
- 2026"What Did It Actually Do?": Understanding Risk Awareness and Traceability for Computer-Use Agentscited by 2
- 2026ASEval: Automated Trajectory-Level Security Testing for Autonomous Agentscited by 2
- 2026SafeClawBench: Separating Semantic, Audit-Evidence, and Sandbox Harm in Tool-Using LLM Agentscited by 2
- 2026When Claws Remember but Do Not Tell: Stealthy Memory Injection in Persistent Personal Agentscited by 2
- 2026When Routine Chats Turn Toxic: Unintended Long-Term State Poisoning in Personalized Agentscited by 1
12 most cited of 20 All 20 (JSON)
- 2026PACE: Provenance-Aware Capability Enforcement for Tool-Using LLM Agents1 Oct 2026
- 2026A Blind Trust, the Bloody Thrust: When Attacker-Controlled Hook Updates Steer AI Agent Harnesses towards Malicious Behaviors3 Sep 2026
- 2026AgentKernel: The Trust-Native Agentic Operating System29 Aug 2026
- 2026HarnessRisk: A Lifecycle-Oriented Benchmark for Agent Harness Safety18 Aug 2026
- 2026SynChain: Inducing Computer-Use Agent Systems to Construct Their Own Attack Chains7 Aug 2026
- 2026When Claws Remember but Do Not Tell: Stealthy Memory Injection in Persistent Personal Agents6 Jul 2026
- 2026SafeClawBench: Separating Semantic, Audit-Evidence, and Sandbox Harm in Tool-Using LLM Agents16 Jun 2026
- 2026Toward Secure LLM Agents: Threat Surfaces, Attacks, Defenses, and Evaluation9 Jun 2026
- 2026Security of OpenClaw Agents: Fundamentals, Attacks, and Countermeasures25 May 2026
- 2026ASEval: Automated Trajectory-Level Security Testing for Autonomous Agents21 May 2026
- 2026LivePI: More Realistic Benchmarking of Agents Against Indirect Prompt Injection18 May 2026
- 2026Securing Computer-Use Agents: A Unified Architecture-Lifecycle Framework for Deployment-Grounded Reliability8 May 2026
12 newest of 20 All 20 (JSON)
- 2026ClawKeeper: Comprehensive Safety Protection for OpenClaw Agents Through Skills, Plugins, and Watcherscited by 18
- 2026A Systematic Security Evaluation of OpenClaw and Its Variantscited by 11
- 2026Mind Your HEARTBEAT! Claw Background Execution Inherently Enables Silent Memory Pollutioncited by 5
- 2026How do AI agents talk about science and research? An exploration of scientific discussions on Moltbook using BERTopiccited by 1
- 2026JANUS: Foreseeing Latent Risk for Long-Horizon Agent Safetycited by 0
- 2026ASTELD: A Six-Axis Classification Framework for Autonomous AI Agents - Design, Evaluation, and an OpenClaw Case Studycited by 0
- 2026ASTELD: A Six-Axis Classification Framework for Autonomous AI Agents - Design, Evaluation, and an OpenClaw Case Study5 Aug 2026
- 2026JANUS: Foreseeing Latent Risk for Long-Horizon Agent Safety22 Jul 2026
- 2026A Systematic Security Evaluation of OpenClaw and Its Variants3 Apr 2026
- 2026ClawKeeper: Comprehensive Safety Protection for OpenClaw Agents Through Skills, Plugins, and Watchers25 Mar 2026
- 2026Mind Your HEARTBEAT! Claw Background Execution Inherently Enables Silent Memory Pollution24 Mar 2026
- 2026How do AI agents talk about science and research? An exploration of scientific discussions on Moltbook using BERTopic11 Mar 2026
Similar, not cited
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- 2026Your Agent, Their Asset: A Real-World Safety Analysis of OpenClaw
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