Your Agent Is a Security Risk (And Doesn't Know It)

The Story

A couple of weeks ago, I helped a friend set up his first real server. He was moving away from Replit — ready to run his own infrastructure.

Everything worked fine for two days.

Then: "Andre, I can't log in anymore."

Long story short: Claude Code had autonomously upgraded npm to version 15.9 — a version with a known vulnerability from 2016. The exploit took over his account, compromised the server.

Because I had root access, I spent hours debugging. It took a while to trace it back to the npm package. And here's the kicker:

Even Claude couldn't tell us what went wrong.

The agent that caused the problem couldn't identify the problem.

The Real Issue: Agents Aren't Security-Savvy

This wasn't a malicious actor. There was no phishing, no social engineering, no targeted attack.

The agent did it to itself.

When Claude Code installs a package, it doesn't:

• Check for known vulnerabilities
• Verify the package is the latest secure version
• Review the security advisories
• Consider if the upgrade is even necessary

It just runs npm install and moves on.

They have the access of a senior developer and the security awareness of a first-week intern.

Real Examples (This Week)

npm 15.9 Compromise

• Agent: Claude Code
• Action: Autonomous npm upgrade
• Result: Server takeover via known vulnerability

900+ Agents on Shodan

• What: AI agents exposed on public internet
• How: Agents configured ports without firewall rules
• Result: Wallet key extracted in 5 minutes

ClawdHub Credential Stealer

• What: Malicious skill disguised as weather app
• How: Reads ~/.clawdbot/.env, sends to webhook
• Result: API keys exfiltrated

Checklist: Securing Your Agent

• ☐Sandbox first: Run in container/VM before giving real access
• ☐Least privilege: Only give access it actually needs
• ☐Monitor packages: Use npm audit, pip-audit regularly
• ☐Network isolation: Tailscale or VPN, never raw public IP
• ☐Secrets in vault: Not in .env, not in files
• ☐Kill switch ready: Know how to shut it down fast

The Bottom Line

My friend's server wasn't hacked by a sophisticated attacker.

It was compromised by his own AI assistant, doing exactly what it was designed to do — complete tasks autonomously.

That's the security gap we need to close.