Executive brief
OpenClaw is a Slack monitoring tool that enforces sender policies to control which users can perform actions like reactions and pins. In affected versions, the tool failed to consistently apply these access controls to reaction and pin events, allowing unauthorized users to bypass configured policies and inject restricted events from outside the allowed user list.
Technical details
The vulnerability is an authorization bypass (CWE-863) in OpenClaw's Slack event handling. The reaction_* and pin_* event handlers failed to consistently apply sender-policy checks (DM policy, channel user allowlists, and channel-level allow checks) before adding events to system-event context. An authenticated attacker with network access to a Slack workspace could bypass configured DM policies and channel user allowlists to inject unauthorized reaction and pin events from restricted senders. The fix involves routing reaction and pin handlers through a shared sender authorization function (authorizeSlackSlackSystemEventSender) that enforces all required checks. Patch available in version 2026.2.25 and later.
Affected products
- OpenClaw OpenClaw <= 2026.2.24
Timeline
- 2026-02-26: disclosed
- 2026-02-26: patched: Version 2026.2.25 released with fix