Executive brief
OpenClaw Gateway is a Node.js-based API gateway that supports custom transformation modules via hook configurations. An attacker with administrative access to modify gateway configuration can exploit insufficient path validation to load and execute arbitrary local modules, gaining code execution in the gateway process with full application privileges.
Technical details
The vulnerability is a path traversal / arbitrary code execution flaw (CWE-22, CWE-427) in OpenClaw Gateway's hook module loading mechanism. The gateway dynamically imports JavaScript/TypeScript modules specified in hook configuration (hooks.mappings[].transform.module and hooks.internal.handlers[].module) without adequately sanitizing or constraining the module paths before passing them to dynamic import(). An authenticated administrator who can modify gateway configuration via the gateway config endpoints can specify a malicious local module path, causing the gateway process to load and execute arbitrary code. The attack requires high-privilege access to gateway configuration but allows full remote code execution within the Node.js process. Patches were released in version 2026.2.14 (commits a0361b8 and 35c0e66) to restrict and harden module path validation.
Affected products
- OpenClaw openclaw >=2026.1.5, <2026.2.14
Timeline
- 2026-02-18: disclosed
- 2026-02-14: patched: Version 2026.2.14 released with fixes