CVE-2026-33577
Published: 31 March 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-33577 is a high-severity Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863) vulnerability in Openclaw Openclaw. Its CVSS base score is 8.1 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 2.4th 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 AC-6 (Least Privilege).
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI
Enforces approved authorizations for access, directly addressing the missing callerScopes validation that allowed low-privilege approval of broader scope nodes.
Requires validation of information inputs such as callerScopes in the node pairing path to prevent insufficient scope checks.
Employs least privilege to restrict operators from approving or extending privileges beyond their authorized scopes on paired nodes.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Authorization bypass (CWE-863) in node-pairing approval path allows low-privilege authenticated users to approve higher-scope nodes, directly enabling privilege escalation via software vulnerability exploitation.
NVD Description
OpenClaw before 2026.3.28 contains an insufficient scope validation vulnerability in the node pairing approval path that allows low-privilege operators to approve nodes with broader scopes. Attackers can exploit missing callerScopes validation in node-pairing.ts to extend privileges onto paired nodes beyond…
more
their authorization level.
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2026-33577 is an insufficient scope validation vulnerability (CWE-863) in OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.3.28. The flaw exists in the node pairing approval path due to missing callerScopes validation in the node-pairing.ts component, enabling low-privilege operators to approve nodes with broader scopes than their authorization level. Published on 2026-03-31, it carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.1 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N), indicating high severity with network accessibility and low complexity.
Low-privilege users (PR:L) with network access can exploit this vulnerability without user interaction. By leveraging the flawed approval mechanism, they can pair and approve nodes, extending their privileges beyond authorized scopes onto those nodes and achieving high confidentiality and integrity impacts, such as unauthorized data access or modification.
Mitigation requires upgrading to OpenClaw 2026.3.28 or later, which addresses the issue via commit 4d7cc6bb4fac68b5a5fadd1c5a23168281221f34. Further details on the vulnerability and remediation are provided in the GitHub security advisory at GHSA-2x4x-cc5g-qmmg and the VulnCheck advisory.
Details
- CWE(s)