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OpenClaw: Scoped chat.send route inheritance could bypass admin command scope gates

High severity GitHub Reviewed Published May 28, 2026 in openclaw/openclaw

Package

npm openclaw (npm)

Affected versions

< 2026.5.18

Patched versions

2026.5.18

Description

Summary

Some internal command handlers require operator.approvals or operator.admin scopes. In affected releases, a scoped Gateway chat.send request delivered through an inherited external route could be evaluated as an external-channel command while still carrying the lower Gateway client scopes.

This issue affects scoped Gateway clients. It does not apply to shared-secret bearer HTTP compatibility endpoints, which are documented as full operator surfaces under OpenClaw's trust model.

Affected configurations

This affects deployments where a scoped Gateway caller with operator.write can use chat.send with delivery into a session that has an inherited external delivery route.

Impact

Commands that should have required operator.approvals or operator.admin could run with only operator.write in this routed context. Affected command families included approval resolution and selected administrative commands such as plugin, config, MCP, allowlist, and ACP mutations.

Patched Versions

The first stable patched version is 2026.5.18.

Mitigations

Upgrade to openclaw@2026.5.18 or later. Before upgrading, avoid granting operator.write tokens to clients that can deliver commands into sessions with external routes unless those clients are trusted with admin-like command effects.

References

@steipete steipete published to openclaw/openclaw May 28, 2026
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Jul 2, 2026
Reviewed Jul 2, 2026

Severity

High

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS score

Weaknesses

Missing Authorization

The product does not perform an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action. Learn more on MITRE.

Incorrect Authorization

The product performs an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action, but it does not correctly perform the check. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

No known CVE

GHSA ID

GHSA-hw9r-h9mr-4jff

Source code

Credits

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