Executive brief
OpenClaw is a gateway platform that manages WebSocket connections with shared authentication. A logic flaw allows shared-token or password-authenticated clients to declare elevated administrative scopes without proper server-side verification, enabling attackers with basic shared credentials to perform admin-only operations and potentially gain unauthorized access to gateway functions.
Technical details
The vulnerability is a missing authorization check (CWE-862) in the WebSocket connection path of OpenClaw's gateway. When device-less shared-token or password-authenticated clients connect, the server fails to validate and bind scopes server-side, instead accepting client-declared scopes such as operator.admin. An authenticated attacker with shared credentials can exploit this by declaring elevated scopes during WebSocket connection without requiring additional privileges or user interaction. This allows unauthorized performance of admin-only gateway operations. The fix, released in OpenClaw 2026.3.12, clears unbound scopes for non-Control-UI shared-auth connections and includes regression tests.
Affected products
- OpenClaw OpenClaw <=2026.3.11
Timeline
- 2026-03-13: disclosed
- 2026-03-12: patched: Version 2026.3.12 fixes the vulnerability