Raw vector
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:XCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2026-28462 is a high-severity Path Traversal (CWE-22) vulnerability in Openclaw Openclaw. Its CVSS base score is 8.7 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 35th 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 map to AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
CVE-2026-28462, published on 2026-03-05, is a path traversal vulnerability (CWE-22) in the browser control API of OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.2.13. The flaw occurs because the API accepts user-supplied output paths for trace and download files without consistently constraining writes to temporary directories. This enables exploitation through the POST /trace/stop, POST /wait/download, and POST /download endpoints.
Remote attackers with API access and no required privileges (PR:N) can exploit the vulnerability over the network (AV:N) with low attack complexity (AC:L) and no user interaction (UI:N). Successful exploitation allows writing files outside the intended temporary roots, resulting in high confidentiality impact (C:H) but no integrity (I:N) or availability (A:N) effects, as reflected in its CVSS 3.1 score of 7.5 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N).
Mitigation details are provided in advisories from GitHub (GHSA-gq9c-wg68-gwj2) and VulnCheck, along with a fixing commit at https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/commit/7f0489e4731c8d965d78d6eac4a60312e46a9426. Affected users should upgrade to OpenClaw 2026.2.13 or later to address the issue.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-9908
Vulnerability Data
OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.2.13 contain a vulnerability in the browser control API in which it accepts user-supplied output paths for trace and download files without consistently constraining writes to temporary directories. Attackers with API access can exploit path traversal…
more
in POST /trace/stop, POST /wait/download, and POST /download endpoints to write files outside intended temp roots.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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V5.3.2
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Enforces the intended directory access authorizations that path traversal would otherwise bypass.
Input validation directly neutralizes special path elements before pathname construction occurs.
Least privilege reduces the impact of any unauthorized file access obtained via traversal.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Patching/maintenance can remediate known path-traversal flaws in deployed software (partial prevention of exploitability) but does nothing to stop the coding defect from being introduced in the first place.
PR.AA-05 defines and reviews access policies but does not address code-level pathname neutralization, so neither direction prevents CWE-22.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Security testing in development catches path traversal via static/dynamic analysis.
Secure SDLC mandates input validation and path sanitization that directly prevent path traversal.
Application security requirements include rules for safe file handling and canonicalization.
Secure architecture principles require least-privilege file access and directory isolation.
Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe path construction and mandate safe APIs.
Information access restriction limits which files an application may read or write.