Executive brief
OpenClaw is a gateway platform that supports optional Nostr (a decentralized social media protocol) integration through a plugin. The Nostr profile management endpoints were exposed without authentication, allowing unauthenticated attackers on the network to read and modify Nostr profiles and persist configuration changes. This could enable account hijacking, impersonation, or service disruption for deployments with the Nostr plugin enabled.
Technical details
The vulnerability is an authentication bypass (CWE-306) in OpenClaw's Nostr channel plugin. Profile management endpoints at /api/channels/nostr/:accountId/profile (GET/PUT) and /api/channels/nostr/:accountId/profile/import (POST) were dispatched via the gateway HTTP layer without requiring authentication, allowing unauthenticated remote callers to read and mutate profiles and gateway configuration. The attack is network-exploitable when the gateway HTTP port is accessible beyond localhost (bound to 0.0.0.0, exposed on a LAN, behind a reverse proxy, or via Tailscale). Attackers can modify profiles and trigger signed Nostr events using the bot's private key. The fix (version 2026.2.12 and later) enforces gateway authentication for all plugin HTTP requests under /api/channels/* before dispatching to handlers.
Affected products
- OpenClaw OpenClaw <=2026.2.9
Timeline
- 2026-02-17: disclosed
- 2026-02-12: patched: Version 2026.2.12 released with fix
- 2026-02-14: advisory