CVE-2026-35669
Openclaw ≤ 2026.3.25
Raw vector
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/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:XSummary
CVE-2026-35669 is a high-severity Incorrect Use of Privileged APIs (CWE-648) vulnerability in Openclaw Openclaw. Its CVSS base score is 8.7 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism (T1548); ranked at the 22th 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 SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and AC-3 (Access Enforcement) — 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-2026-35669 is a privilege escalation vulnerability (CWE-648: Incorrect Handling of Functional Options or Parameters) affecting OpenClaw versions before 2026.3.25. The flaw exists in gateway-authenticated plugin HTTP routes, which incorrectly mint the operator.admin runtime scope regardless of the scopes granted to the caller. This scope boundary bypass allows attackers to gain elevated privileges and perform unauthorized administrative actions. The vulnerability carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) and was published on 2026-04-10.
An attacker with low privileges can exploit this vulnerability remotely over the network with low attack complexity and no user interaction required. By leveraging the misconfigured HTTP routes in the gateway-authenticated plugin, the attacker bypasses intended scope restrictions to obtain operator.admin runtime scope. This enables execution of unauthorized administrative actions, resulting in high impacts to confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
Advisories recommend upgrading to OpenClaw 2026.3.25 or later, where the issue is addressed in GitHub commit ec2dbcff9afd8a52e00de054b506c91726d9fbbe. Additional details on the vulnerability and remediation are provided in the GitHub security advisory at https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/security/advisories/GHSA-qm2m-28pf-hgjw and the VulnCheck advisory at https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/openclaw-privilege-escalation-via-gateway-plugin-http-authentication-scope.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-21484
Vulnerability Data
OpenClaw before 2026.3.25 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability in gateway-authenticated plugin HTTP routes that incorrectly mint operator.admin runtime scope regardless of caller-granted scopes. Attackers can exploit this scope boundary bypass to gain elevated privileges and perform unauthorized administrative actions.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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V3.5.2V6.4.6
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation can discover incorrect calls to privileged APIs before deployment.
Enforces authorization checks around privileged operations so that an API requiring elevated rights cannot be reached or misused without proper rights.
Least-privilege assignment directly reduces both the availability of privileged APIs and the blast radius when they are invoked incorrectly.
Security engineering principles include correct use of privileged interfaces and safe invocation patterns that stop the weakness from being introduced.
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.
Secure SDLC practices directly enforce correct usage of privileged APIs during development.
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 can detect incorrect privileged API calls but does not prevent them at design time.
Restricting privileged utility programs limits the exposure of privileged APIs to misuse.
Privileged access rights directly govern the correct use of privileged APIs and reduce misuse.
Secure development lifecycle includes API usage standards that can prevent incorrect privileged calls.
Application security requirements can specify correct invocation of privileged APIs.
Secure architecture principles guide proper privilege separation and API usage.