CVE-2026-22181
Published: 18 March 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-22181 is a medium-severity SSRF (CWE-918) vulnerability in Openclaw Openclaw. Its CVSS base score is 6.1 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 20.7th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 AC-4 (Information Flow Enforcement) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2026-22181, published on 2026-03-18, is a DNS pinning bypass vulnerability classified under CWE-918 (Server-Side Request Forgery) that affects OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.3.2. The issue resides in strict URL fetch paths, where the presence of environment proxy variables such as HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY, or ALL_PROXY enables attackers to circumvent SSRF guards. Instead of adhering to pinned-destination routing, attacker-influenced URLs are routed through proxy behavior, allowing access to internal targets reachable from the proxy environment.
With a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.6 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:L), the vulnerability can be exploited by low-privileged users over the network with low attack complexity and no user interaction. Exploitation bypasses SSRF protections to reach internal resources via the proxy, resulting in high confidentiality impact—such as unauthorized data access—along with low integrity and availability effects.
Advisories recommend updating to OpenClaw version 2026.3.2 or later to mitigate the issue. Relevant details are provided in the patching commit at https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/commit/345abf0b2e0f43b0f229e96f252ebf56f1e5549e, the GitHub security advisory at https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/security/advisories/GHSA-8mvx-p2r9-r375, and the VulnCheck advisory at https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/openclaw-dns-pinning-bypass-via-environment-proxy-configuration-in-web-fetch.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-12728
Vulnerability details
OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.3.2 contain a DNS pinning bypass vulnerability in strict URL fetch paths that allows attackers to circumvent SSRF guards when environment proxy variables are configured. When HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY, or ALL_PROXY environment variables are present, attacker-influenced URLs…
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can be routed through proxy behavior instead of pinned-destination routing, enabling access to internal targets reachable from the proxy environment.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
SSRF bypass in public-facing web application directly enables exploitation of the app to reach internal resources.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Requires timely remediation of the specific flaw in OpenClaw by patching to version 2026.3.2 or later, directly eliminating the DNS pinning bypass via proxy environment variables.
Mandates validation of attacker-influenced URLs in strict fetch paths to block SSRF bypasses through proxy-routed access to internal targets.
Enforces information flow policies to restrict unauthorized server-side requests from reaching internal resources via proxy behavior in URL fetching.