From Automation to Infection (Part II): Reverse Shells, Semantic Worms, and Cognitive Rootkits in OpenClaw Skills

In part one , we showed how OpenClaw skills are rapidly becoming a supply-chain delivery channel: third-party “automation” that runs with real system access. This second installment expands the taxonomy with five techniques VirusTotal is actively seeing abused through skills, spanning remote execution, propagation, persistence, exfiltration, and behavioral backdoors, including attacks that don’t just steal data or drop binaries, but quietly reprogram what an agent will do next time it wakes up. Let’s move from theory to tradecraft: five techniques, five skills, and five ways “automation” can q