Fake Moltbot AI assistant just spreads malware – so AI fans need to beware of scams

• Hackers released fake VSCode extension masquerading as Moltbot AI assistant
• Extension carried trojan using remote desktop and layered loaders
• Attacks were quickly detected and stopped, but Moltbot’s site was flagged as dangerous

Hackers have hijacked Moltbot’s good name and used it to deliver malware to countless unsuspecting users – but fortunately the attack was quickly detected and stopped.

Moltbot is an open source personal AI assistant software that runs locally on a user’s computer or server (as opposed to cloud-based alternatives) that lets users interact with large language models (LLM) and automate various tasks. However, since it runs locally with deep system access, some security researchers urged users to be careful as misconfigurations could expose sensitive data and lead to various hacking attempts.