Compromised Cline npm publishing token enables unauthorized software release

On 17 February 2026, an unauthorized party used a compromised Cline npm publishing token to publish cline@2.3.0 through Cline's legitimate distribution channel. The altered package added a post-install script that automatically installed OpenClaw on downstream developer systems. Cline traced the exposure to a prompt-injection and CI/CD cache-poisoning attack path that exposed publication credentials. The unauthorized package was available for approximately eight hours before Cline released a corrected version and revoked the token. Cline confirmed that OpenClaw itself was legitimate and that no malicious code or user-data theft resulted, but the incident compromised the integrity of a legitimate software distribution channel.