CVE-2026-28454
Published: 05 March 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-28454 is a high-severity Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity (CWE-345) vulnerability in Openclaw Openclaw. Its CVSS base score is 8.2 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 16.6th 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-3 (Access Enforcement) and IA-9 (Service Identification and Authentication).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2026-28454 affects OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.2.2, specifically in Telegram webhook mode, which must be explicitly enabled. The vulnerability stems from a failure to validate webhook secrets, permitting unauthenticated HTTP POST requests to the webhook endpoint that processes attacker-controlled JSON payloads without verification. This issue, classified under CWE-345 (Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity), has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N), highlighting high integrity impact from network-accessible exploitation with low complexity and no privileges required.
Remote, unauthenticated attackers can exploit this by sending crafted HTTP POST requests to the exposed webhook endpoint, forging Telegram update payloads. By spoofing fields such as message.from.id and chat.id, attackers bypass sender allowlists, enabling execution of privileged bot commands that would otherwise be restricted.
Mitigation details are outlined in the GitHub security advisory (GHSA-fhvm-j76f-qmjv) and related commits, which patch the validation of webhook secrets. Security practitioners should upgrade to OpenClaw version 2026.2.2 or later, where the commits (3cbcba10cf30c2ffb898f0d8c7dfb929f15f8930, 5643a934799dc523ec2ef18c007e1aa2c386b670, 633fe8b9c17f02fcc68ecdb5ec212a5ace932f09, ca92597e1f9593236ad86810b66633144b69314d) address the flaw by enforcing proper secret checks in Telegram webhook mode.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-9903
Vulnerability details
OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.2.2 fail to validate webhook secrets in Telegram webhook mode (must be enabled), allowing unauthenticated HTTP POST requests to the webhook endpoint that trust attacker-controlled JSON payloads. Remote attackers can forge Telegram updates by spoofing message.from.id…
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and chat.id fields to bypass sender allowlists and execute privileged bot commands.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Vuln enables remote unauth exploitation of exposed webhook (T1190) to bypass allowlists and execute privileged bot commands (T1059).
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Requires validation of incoming webhook JSON payloads and secrets to prevent processing of forged Telegram updates with spoofed sender fields.
Enforces approved authorizations on the webhook endpoint to block unauthenticated HTTP POST requests from remote attackers.
Mandates identification and authentication of non-organizational services like Telegram when sending updates to the webhook endpoint using secrets.