Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-35620

Access Control in Openclaw ≤ 2026.3.24

Public PoCAccess Control
Published
10 April 2026
Modified
13 April 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v4 5.3
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:L/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:X
EPSS Score 0.0044 36th percentile
Risk Priority 35 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-35620 is a medium-severity Missing Authorization (CWE-862) vulnerability in Openclaw Openclaw. Its CVSS base score is 5.3 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 36th 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 AC-6 (Least Privilege) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

OpenClaw before 2026.3.24 contains missing authorization vulnerabilities in the /send and /allowlist chat command handlers. The /send command allows non-owner command-authorized senders to change owner-only session delivery policy settings, and the /allowlist mutating commands fail to enforce operator.admin scope. Attackers…

more

with operator.write scope can invoke /send on|off|inherit to persistently mutate the current session's sendPolicy, and execute /allowlist add commands to modify config-backed allowFrom entries and pairing-store allowlist entries without proper admin authorization.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
Why these techniques?

Missing authorization (CWE-862) in command handlers allows operator.write users to perform owner/admin actions such as mutating sendPolicy and allowlists, directly enabling privilege escalation.

Confidence: MEDIUM · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-62954Shared CWE-862
CVE-2025-62048Shared CWE-862
CVE-2024-13653Shared CWE-862
CVE-2025-62006Shared CWE-862
CVE-2025-62909Shared CWE-862
CVE-2024-11725Shared CWE-862
CVE-2025-62906Shared CWE-862
CVE-2024-9587Shared CWE-862
CVE-2025-64285Shared CWE-862
CVE-2025-64358Shared CWE-862

Affected Assets

openclaw
openclaw
≤ 2026.3.24

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • AC-3 Access Enforcement
  • AC-6 Least Privilege
  • AC-5 Separation of Duties
Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 5 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

prevent

Directly enforces authorization checks on /send and /allowlist mutating commands so that operator.write cannot alter owner-only sendPolicy or admin-scoped allowlists.

prevent

Restricts privileges so that accounts granted only operator.write cannot perform owner-only or operator.admin actions on session policy and allowlist entries.

prevent

Enforces separation between owner-only delivery-policy changes and operator-scoped allowlist mutations, preventing a single privilege level from performing both.

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.

PR.AA-05 full match
prevents

Explicitly requires defining, enforcing, and reviewing authorizations and least privilege, directly preventing missing authorization checks.

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.

prevents

Requiring authentication and credentials before any access occurs eliminates the absence of authorization checks that would otherwise allow an unauthenticated actor to reach protected resources.

prevents

Requiring formal authorization of every access request before rights are granted ensures that checks for required permissions are performed, preventing missing authorization checks from being introduced.

prevents

Mandatory authorization checks and central records of granted rights ensure that every access attempt is preceded by an explicit decision rather than relying on missing checks.

mitigates

Segregating the approval of access rights from their implementation provides an independent check that reduces the impact of missing authorization checks in the resulting system configuration.

detects

By requiring competent outsiders to verify that every function enforces the need-to-know principle, the control lowers the likelihood that missing authorization checks persist undetected.

prevents

Defining authorization responsibilities and reviewing risk-treatment progress throughout the project lifecycle catches missing authorization checks before the system is deployed.

References