Executive brief
OpenClaw is a cross-platform AI automation tool that includes media download functionality for messaging platforms like Tlon. A vulnerability in the Tlon media download component allows attackers to bypass safety limits on file size and download count, causing disk space exhaustion and service unavailability. This affects users running vulnerable versions of OpenClaw when processing Tlon messages containing media.
Technical details
The vulnerability is a resource exhaustion flaw (CWE-770) in OpenClaw's Tlon media download functionality. The root cause is insufficient enforcement of safety limits on inbound media downloads—specifically, the absence of per-file size caps and per-message image count limits. An authenticated attacker with network access to Tlon can craft messages containing many or large media files to exhaust the local disk without triggering the intended resource safeguards. The fix (commit 2194587d70d2aef863508b945319c5a7c88b12ce) routes downloads through a shared media store and enforces a 6 MB per-file cap and 8-image-per-message limit. The patch is available in version 2026.3.31 and later.
Affected products
- OpenClaw openclaw <=2026.3.28
Timeline
- 2026-03-31: disclosed: Fix commit authored
- 2026-04-07: advisory: GHSA-4g5x-2jfc-xm98 published
- 2026-03-31: patched: Version 2026.3.31 released with fix