Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-41908

Access Control in Openclaw ≤ 2026.4.20

Public PoCAccess Control
Published
23 April 2026
Modified
28 April 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v4 2.3
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:L/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:X
EPSS Score 0.0022 13th percentile
Risk Priority 15 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-41908 is a low-severity Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863) vulnerability in Openclaw Openclaw. Its CVSS base score is 2.3 (Low).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 13th 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 2026.4.20 contains a scope enforcement bypass vulnerability in the assistant-media route that allows trusted-proxy callers without operator.read scope to access protected assistant-media files and metadata. Attackers can bypass identity-bearing HTTP auth path scope validation to retrieve sensitive media…

more

content within allowed media roots.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
T1005 Data from Local System Collection
Adversaries may search local system sources, such as file systems, configuration files, local databases, virtual machine files, or process memory, to find files of interest and sensitive data prior to Exfiltration.
Why these techniques?

Auth bypass in public-facing assistant-media route directly enables exploitation of the app (T1190) and unauthorized retrieval of protected local media files/metadata (T1005).

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

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-42438Same product: Openclaw Openclaw
CVE-2026-34506Same product: Openclaw Openclaw
CVE-2026-32924Same product: Openclaw Openclaw
CVE-2026-32028Same product: Openclaw Openclaw
CVE-2026-32006Same product: Openclaw Openclaw
CVE-2026-31998Same product: Openclaw Openclaw
CVE-2026-32899Same product: Openclaw Openclaw
CVE-2026-32021Same product: Openclaw Openclaw
CVE-2026-35657Same product: Openclaw Openclaw
CVE-2026-32027Same product: Openclaw Openclaw

Affected Assets

openclaw
openclaw
≤ 2026.4.20

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • AC-3 Access Enforcement
  • AC-6 Least Privilege
  • AC-4 Information Flow Enforcement
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 decisions on the assistant-media route so callers lacking operator.read scope cannot retrieve protected files.

prevent

Requires that only the minimum scopes (including operator.read) are granted to trusted-proxy callers, eliminating the excess privilege the bypass exploits.

prevent

Enforces information-flow rules between the proxy and media store so that requests without the required scope attribute are blocked before content is returned.

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 mostly match
prevents

Defining, enforcing, and reviewing access authorizations and least privilege directly prevents incorrect 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 consistency between access rights and classification plus formal approval steps ensures that the authorization logic correctly distinguishes between entities that should and should not be granted access.

prevents

Enforcing policy-driven approval and role-change reviews stops incorrect or stale authorization decisions from remaining in effect after job changes or terminations.

prevents

By tying access rights to identity, device, location and classification, the control reduces the likelihood that an authorization decision will be based on an incorrect or bypassed policy.

References