I’ve been involved in music and tech for over 35 years. I’ve watched every “next big thing” arrive with fanfare and leave with casualties. This week’s casualty is anyone who followed influencer advice and installed OpenClaw because some guy with a ring light called it a “must-have for your workflow.”
On March 31st, that must-have became a wide-open door for North Korean hackers. You lose.
I’m not a guru. I don’t have a course to sell you, and I really don’t need your money. I’m just sick of watching people get screwed because they trusted the wrong person. Oh, and gurus.
Open Source Is Open. That’s All.
There’s a myth floating around that “open source” means safe, vetted, altruistic. It means none of those things. It means the code is visible. That’s all. You still have to verify it, and most of you don’t have the background to audit a thousand lines of JavaScript. Which is exactly why you shouldn’t be the first, or the fiftieth, to install some game-changing new tool.
Oh, and again, I’m not for closed source either. I have written about open standards, and I‘ve been burned by closed source like most of you, but I need to be honest: just because I like open source doesn’t mean I’m blind.
Here’s What Actually Happened
Most of you use Axios without knowing it. It’s a program that enables your apps to communicate with the internet (and many programs, not just Open Claw, install it automatically.) They pushed a “new version” that looked completely official and contained a Remote Access Trojan. A RAT.
OpenClaw is the current early-adoption darling, so it pulled in that poison immediately. If you installed or updated those tools, someone else may have the keys to your machine right now. And your business. And everything on it.
Influencers Aren’t Experts. They’re Salesmen. But you knew that.
Most of these people get paid for hype, not for being right. (I don’t like to paint with a broad brush, but sometimes the truth hurts.) They want you installing things first so they get the clicks and the commissions. And yes, you have noticed the “ad-free” socials are full of “ads”.
In this business, being first usually just means being the first victim.
Open source is genuinely useful. Should I mention again, I love Open Source, but not for security; for lifespan.
Open source is an ecosystem. One poisoned root and everything that grows from it is toxic.
What I Do
I don’t have a perfect solution. I have a 35-year habit that keeps me mostly out of trouble.
Don’t chase every patch. Don’t chase every update. If your setup works, leave it the hell alone. Let the early adopters be the crash-test dummies. This also applies to your DAW, plugins, etc.
I run a 72-hour rule on updates. Nothing new gets on my machines for three days. Most attacks like this one surface within 24 hours. Boring is safe.
The Bottom Line
Never trust, always verify isn’t a bumper sticker philosophy. Own the process. Nobody else will.
If an influencer calls something magical, remember who’s doing the trick and who’s standing in the audience. They walked away with the views. You walked away with the RAT.
If You’re Technical, Read This
Check your project folders for node_modules/plain-crypto-js.
If it’s there, you’re compromised. Don’t clean it. Wipe the machine, rotate every password and API key you own, and start from scratch. There are no shortcuts on this one. Yeah it sucks.