Executive brief
BlueBubbles is an optional messaging plugin for OpenClaw that restricts direct messages to approved contacts. When the allowlist was left empty but the access policy was set to "pairing" or "allowlist" mode, the plugin incorrectly granted access to all senders instead of blocking them. This could allow unauthorized users to send direct messages and reactions to accounts they should not be able to reach, though risk is typically limited to deployments with publicly reachable account identifiers and broad permissions.
Technical details
The vulnerability is an authorization bypass (CWE-863) in the BlueBubbles DM policy enforcement. The isAllowedBlueBubblesSender() function delegated to isAllowedParsedChatSender(), which incorrectly returned true when the effective allowlist (effectiveAllowFrom) was empty, regardless of the configured dmPolicy (which defaults to "pairing"). An attacker who could reach a BlueBubbles account with an empty allowlist could send direct messages and reactions bypassing intended pairing/allowlist restrictions. The fix implements fail-closed logic in the shared allowlist helper and refactors DM/group authorization to use a single decision helper for both message and reaction paths. Patches are available in OpenClaw version 2026.2.22.
Affected products
- OpenClaw OpenClaw <=2026.2.21-2
Timeline
- 2026-03-04: disclosed: Published via GitHub Security Advisory GHSA-jwf4-8wf4-jf2m
- 2026-03-04: patched: Fix released in planned version 2026.2.22