Executive brief
OpenClaw is a gateway platform that manages configuration and access control. A privilege escalation flaw allows operators with lower-level write permissions to modify critical global configuration settings that should require administrator-level access. An attacker with operator.write credentials could change system settings beyond their authorized scope, potentially affecting system integrity and availability across the entire installation.
Technical details
The vulnerability is a privilege escalation caused by insufficient scope validation in the Active Memory write scope feature (CWE-266: Incorrect Privilege Assignment). Attackers with operator.write role access can call affected commands to apply configuration changes that should be restricted to operator.admin-level users. The attack requires network access and valid authentication (operator.write credentials), with no user interaction needed. Successful exploitation allows unauthorized modification of global configuration parameters beyond the intended write scope. The vulnerability is patched in version 2026.5.6 and later. Mitigation includes restricting Active Memory write access to trusted operators only and disabling the feature when not needed.
Affected products
- OpenClaw openclaw before 2026.5.6
Timeline
- 2026-05-28: disclosed: Advisory published by GitHub (GHSA-x629-46cc-7xgw)
- 2026-05-28: patched: Fix released in version 2026.5.6
- 2026-06-16: other: Duplicate advisory GHSA-58wc-8wrv-xp9j published and later withdrawn