Executive brief
OpenClaw, a platform for voice communication, contains a flaw in how it handles incoming media stream connections. An attacker can open numerous connections without providing valid credentials, potentially overwhelming the system's resources. This can lead to a service outage or significant performance degradation for legitimate users trying to make voice calls.
Technical details
A resource exhaustion vulnerability exists in the @openclaw/voice-call package due to improper WebSocket connection handling. The media-stream path performs a WebSocket upgrade before validating the stream via the shouldAcceptStream() function, which is only triggered after a 'start' frame is received. This allows unauthenticated remote attackers to maintain idle, unvalidated sockets, consuming connection-related resources. If exploited at scale, this leads to a denial-of-service (DoS) condition for legitimate media streams. The fix introduces strict pre-start timeouts and connection caps per IP and globally.
Affected products
- OpenClaw openclaw <= 2026.2.21-2
- OpenClaw @openclaw/voice-call <= 2026.2.21
Timeline
- 2026-02-23: disclosed: Initial disclosure to vendor
- 2026-03-02: advisory: GitHub Advisory published
- 2026-03-11: other: NVD publication date