Executive brief
OpenClaw is a gateway platform that manages connections between clients and systems. Before version 2026.4.2, the Gateway's connection setup process exposed sensitive internal file paths (configPath and stateDir) to non-administrator users. An authenticated but unprivileged user could view these paths to learn details about the host system's deployment and filesystem layout, potentially enabling more targeted follow-up attacks or reconnaissance.
Technical details
This is an information-disclosure vulnerability (CWE-200) in the OpenClaw Gateway's authentication and connection workflow. When a client connects to the Gateway, the server returns a "hello-ok" snapshot containing metadata about the successful connection. Prior to version 2026.4.2, this snapshot unconditionally included admin-scoped configuration fields (configPath and stateDir) even for low-privilege authenticated clients who had no legitimate need for that information. The vulnerability requires authentication (PR:L) and is reachable over the network (AV:N) with no user interaction necessary. An attacker with a non-admin account can enumerate the exposed paths to aid in fingerprinting the deployment and planning chained attacks, though this does not directly grant unauthorized access. The fix restricts these sensitive metadata fields to admin-scoped clients only in the hello-ok snapshot response (commit 676b748).
Affected products
- openclaw openclaw <= 2026.4.1
Timeline
- 2026-04-07: disclosed
- 2026-04-02: patched: Fix committed; patched version 2026.4.2