Executive brief
OpenClaw, a messaging integration platform, contains a security flaw in how it handles direct message pairing across multiple accounts. In certain configurations, an attacker who is approved to send messages to a user on one account could be automatically granted access to that same user on a different account without their permission. This allows unauthorized senders to bypass intended privacy boundaries in multi-account environments.
Technical details
An authorization bypass vulnerability (CWE-863) exists in OpenClaw's pairing-store access control mechanism. The root cause is the use of unscoped pairing store access, which fails to properly isolate pairing approvals between different accounts in multi-account deployments. An attacker with low privileges who has been approved as a sender for one account can exploit this lack of account-scoping to be automatically accepted in another account without explicit user interaction or approval. This bypasses the intended authorization boundaries for direct message pairing. The issue is resolved in version 2026.2.26 by enforcing account-scoped pairing APIs.
Affected products
- OpenClaw OpenClaw < 2026.2.26
Timeline
- 2026-02-26: patched: Fixes committed to repository.
- 2026-03-21: advisory: NVD publication date.
References
- https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/commit/a0c5e28f3bf0cc0cd9311f9e9ec2ca0352550dcf
- https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/commit/bce643a0bd145d3e9cb55400af33bd1b85baeb02
- https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/security/advisories/GHSA-vjp8-wprm-2jw9
- https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/openclaw-cross-account-authorization-bypass-in-dm-pairing-store