ON 27 January 2026, security researchers from Aikido Security uncovered a malicious Visual Studio Code extension masquerading as the popular ClawdBot, marketed as an AI coding assistant and dubbed “ClawdBot Agent.” The extension was described as fully functional, but in reality acted as a trojan, silently dropping malware onto Windows machines as VS Code started.
The attackers used a convincing façade, including a professional icon and UI, and integrated with multiple AI providers, while the underlying payload was camouflaged as Lightshot[.]exe or an Electron bundle named Code[.]exe. C2 traffic was traced to darkgptprivate[.]com, hosted in the Seychelles by Omegatech LTD, with Cloudflare masking the primary server at clawdbot.getintwopc[.]site and backups in place.
At the time of removal, Microsoft acted swiftly to ban the extension, and only 21 installs had been recorded, underscoring the need for vigilance when installing AI-enabled tooling. According to Aikido Security, the real Clawdbot team never published an official VS Code extension, and the attackers merely claimed the name first.