GHSA-f6h3-846h-2r8w

OpenClaw's elevated allowFrom accepted broader identity signals than specified within sender-scoped authorization

Medium npm

Severity: 0.0 / 10; Medium · CVSS 4.0
Exploit chance (EPSS): —; No score published
Known exploited: No; Not in CISA's catalog
Weakness: CWE-639 Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key
Fix: 2026.2.22; Upgrade openclaw to this version or later

Description

Summary

In certain elevated-mode configurations, tools.elevated.allowFrom accepted broader identity signals than intended. The fix tightens matching to sender-scoped identity by default and makes mutable metadata matching explicit.

Context

OpenClaw is commonly used in 1:1 chats or trusted group chats. In that intended model, this issue is best treated as authorization hardening / defense-in-depth for elevated sender approval.

Affected Packages / Versions

Package: openclaw (npm)
Latest published npm version at triage: 2026.2.21-2
Affected versions: <= 2026.2.21-2
Planned patched version (pre-set for publish-ready advisory): 2026.2.22

Details

Elevated sender authorization now matches sender-scoped identity values only by default (SenderId, From, SenderE164) and no longer considers recipient routing fields such as ctx.To.

Mutable sender metadata (SenderName, SenderUsername, SenderTag) now requires explicit allowlist prefixes (name:, username:, tag:). Explicit identity prefixes are also supported (id:, from:, e164:).

Fix Commit(s)

6817c0ec7b4fa830123d4f5c340f075a4bd04ee2

Release Process Note

The advisory patched_versions is pre-set to the planned next release (2026.2.22). Once npm openclaw@2026.2.22 is published, this advisory can be published without additional content edits.

OpenClaw thanks @jiseoung for reporting.

Affected versions

npm

Package	Vulnerable	Fixed in
openclaw	`< 2026.2.22`	`2026.2.22`

How to fix

Move to the fixed version or later with your package manager, update the lockfile, and run your tests. If the package only arrives through another dependency, upgrade that dependency first. If none of its releases pulls a fixed version yet, force the version with your package manager's override.

openclaw npm → `2026.2.22`

npm

npm install openclaw@2026.2.22

yarn

yarn add openclaw@2026.2.22

pnpm

pnpm add openclaw@2026.2.22

Severity breakdown

CVSS 4.0 0.0

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Attack vector: Network
Attack complexity: Low
Attack requirements: None
Privileges required: Low
User interaction: None
Confidentiality (vulnerable system): None
Integrity (vulnerable system): Low
Availability (vulnerable system): None
Confidentiality (subsequent systems): None
Integrity (subsequent systems): None
Availability (subsequent systems): None

Weakness

CWE-639: Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key

The system's authorization functionality does not prevent one user from gaining access to another user's data or record by modifying the key value identifying the data.

How to prevent it

Architecture and Design: For each and every data access, ensure that the user has sufficient privilege to access the record that is being requested.
Architecture and Design, Implementation: Make sure that the key that is used in the lookup of a specific user's record is not controllable externally by the user or that any tampering can be detected.
Architecture and Design: Use encryption in order to make it more difficult to guess other legitimate values of the key or associate a digital signature with the key so that the server can verify that there has been no tampering.

References

Packages

github.com/openclaw/openclaw

Timeline

Mar 4, 2026 Published
Mar 4, 2026 Last updated by the source

Advisory	Severity	Why it's related
GHSA-3x84-qq85-fj65 OpenClaw: Browser CDP discovery could accept blocked WebSocket URLs	High	Also affects openclaw
GHSA-9c3v-684m-579c OpenClaw MCP SSE redirects could forward Authorization headers	Medium	Also affects openclaw
GHSA-f397-5vjw-v2c2 OpenClaw: Shell inline-command parsing could miss an allowlist check	High	Also affects openclaw
GHSA-rx78-29qr-5hq8 OpenClaw: Workspace-derived service PATH could influence trash command selection	High	Also affects openclaw
GHSA-ccwh-wwpp-6wg5 OpenClaw: Host environment sanitizer missed two Node.js control variables	High	Also affects openclaw
GHSA-985f-72mj-8gf7 OpenClaw: Tool group policy callers could accept unvalidated group IDs	Medium	Also affects openclaw
GHSA-9v8j-9c9g-w66c OpenClaw: Bootstrap token replay could widen pending pairing scopes	Medium	Also affects openclaw
GHSA-c226-q6fx-6j6c OpenClaw: macOS Swift exec allowlist missed combined POSIX inline flags	Medium	Also affects openclaw

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