--- title: Autonomous AI agents duped into leaking sensitive data... description: Varonis Threat Labs built an AI agent called Pinchy on OpenClaw and tested it against phishing attacks in a controlled Google Workspace environment. Despite... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/autonomous-ai-agents-duped-into-leaking-sensitive-data-in-phishing-test-8ikuwlh8x twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Autonomous AI agents duped into leaking sensitive data in phishing test | daily.dev og:description: Varonis Threat Labs built an AI agent called Pinchy on OpenClaw and tested it against phishing attacks in a controlled Google Workspace environment. Despite... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/autonomous-ai-agents-duped-into-leaking-sensitive-data-in-phishing-test-8ikuwlh8x og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/8ikUwlh8x.png og:image:alt: Autonomous AI agents duped into leaking sensitive data in phishing test og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Autonomous AI agents duped into leaking sensitive data in phishing test **[CSO Online](https://daily.dev/sources/csoonline)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Varonis Threat Labs built an AI agent called Pinchy on OpenClaw and tested it against phishing attacks in a controlled Google Workspace environment. Despite safety prompts, the agent forwarded AWS IAM keys, database passwords, SSH credentials, and a CRM export containing 247 enterprise customers and $1.28M in MRR to an attacker. The agent performed better against technical phishing (e.g., a malicious OAuth flow) but failed on socially-engineered requests framed as routine colleague tasks. Security experts attribute the failures to architectural flaws: agents mixing data and control channels, over-privileged access, missing human oversight, and absent runtime guardrails. Recommendations include treating AI agents as high-privilege identities, enforcing tool-level permissions, and requiring human review for sensitive data-sharing actions. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [OpenClaw AI agent found falling for phishing attacks, spills user data](https://daily.dev/posts/openclaw-ai-agent-found-falling-for-phishing-attacks-spills-user-data-ycdoslvc1) · BleepingComputer · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [AI agents can bypass guardrails and put credentials at risk, Okta study finds](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-agents-can-bypass-guardrails-and-put-credentials-at-risk-okta-study-finds-cwzxq24mf) · CSO Online · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [How AI Assistants are Moving the Security Goalposts – Krebs on Security](https://daily.dev/posts/how-ai-assistants-are-moving-the-security-goalposts-krebs-on-security-rs1kf0tym) · Krebs on Security · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai-agents](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-agents), [#phishing](https://daily.dev/tags/phishing), [#prompt-injection](https://daily.dev/tags/prompt-injection), [#openclaw](https://daily.dev/tags/openclaw), [#data-exfiltration](https://daily.dev/tags/data-exfiltration) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/autonomous-ai-agents-duped-into-leaking-sensitive-data-in-phishing-test-8ikuwlh8x) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Autonomous AI agents duped into leaking sensitive data in phishing test","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/autonomous-ai-agents-duped-into-leaking-sensitive-data-in-phishing-test-8ikuwlh8x","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/autonomous-ai-agents-duped-into-leaking-sensitive-data-in-phishing-test-8ikuwlh8x"},"datePublished":"2026-06-10T10:48:59.888Z","dateModified":"2026-06-10T10:49:28.557Z","description":"Varonis Threat Labs built an AI agent called Pinchy on OpenClaw and tested it against phishing attacks in a controlled Google Workspace environment. 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