CARBONATO Botnet Weaponizes Open-Source AI Agent to Hijack Docker Infrastructure

Security researchers uncovered CARBONATO, a sophisticated Docker botnet that leverages an open-source AI agent framework to automatically compromise and spread across exposed container infrastructure, prioritizing theft of AI provider API keys above all other targets. The malware was discovered in August 2026 after researchers accessed an unauthenticated Docker registry that had remained publicly exposed since May 2026, recovering 59 repositories, 234 image tags, and 4.3 GB of data spanning October 2024 through August 2026.