CVE-2026-41359
Published: 23 April 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-41359 is a high-severity Improper Privilege Management (CWE-269) vulnerability in Openclaw Openclaw. Its CVSS base score is 7.1 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 7.6th 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 AC-6 (Least Privilege).
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI
Enforces approved authorizations to directly prevent operators with write permissions from accessing and modifying admin-class Telegram and cron settings via the send endpoint.
Implements least privilege to restrict operator.write credentials from escalating to admin functionality, addressing CWE-269 improper privilege management.
Remediates the specific access control flaw by requiring timely patching to OpenClaw 2026.3.28 or later as recommended in advisories.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Vulnerability is explicitly a privilege escalation flaw (CWE-269) allowing operator to admin access, directly enabling T1068. It also permits unauthorized modification of cron persistence settings, facilitating T1053.003 for scheduled task persistence.
NVD Description
OpenClaw before 2026.3.28 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability allowing authenticated operators with write permissions to access admin-class Telegram configuration and cron persistence settings via the send endpoint. Attackers with operator.write credentials can exploit insufficient access controls to reach sensitive administrative…
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functionality and modify persistence mechanisms.
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2026-41359 is a privilege escalation vulnerability affecting OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.3.28. The flaw arises from insufficient access controls in the send endpoint, enabling authenticated operators with write permissions to access sensitive admin-class Telegram configuration and cron persistence settings. This issue, tracked under CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management), has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.1 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:N), highlighting high integrity impact with low privileges required.
An attacker with operator.write credentials can exploit this vulnerability remotely over the network without user interaction. By leveraging the send endpoint, they gain unauthorized access to administrative functionality, allowing modification of persistence mechanisms such as cron settings and Telegram configurations typically restricted to admin users.
Advisories recommend upgrading to OpenClaw 2026.3.28 or later, where the vulnerability is addressed via the fix in commit b7d70ade3b9900dbe97bd73be9c02e924ff3c986. Further details on the issue and remediation are provided in the GitHub Security Advisory at https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/security/advisories/GHSA-767m-xrhc-fxm7 and the VulnCheck advisory at https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/openclaw-privilege-escalation-via-operator-write-to-admin-class-telegram-config-and-cron-persistence.
Details
- CWE(s)