Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-43577

Access Control in Openclaw ≤ 2026.4.9

Public PoCAccess Control
Published
06 May 2026
Modified
17 June 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v4 7.1
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/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 0.0025 17th percentile
Risk Priority 55 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-43577 is a high-severity Missing Authorization (CWE-862) vulnerability in Openclaw Openclaw. Its CVSS base score is 7.1 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Data from Local System (T1005); ranked at the 17th 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-4 (Information Flow Enforcement) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

OpenClaw before 2026.4.9 contains a file read vulnerability allowing attackers to bypass navigation guards through browser act/evaluate interactions. Attackers can pivot into the local CDP origin and create or read disallowed file:// pages despite direct navigation policy restrictions.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

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.
T1083 File and Directory Discovery Discovery
Adversaries may enumerate files and directories or may search in specific locations of a host or network share for certain information within a file system.
Why these techniques?

File read vulnerability enables direct local file access and directory discovery by bypassing navigation restrictions to disallowed file:// resources.

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

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-7043Shared CWE-862
CVE-2025-24181Shared CWE-862
CVE-2025-24249Shared CWE-862
CVE-2023-6383Shared CWE-862
CVE-2024-7045Shared CWE-862
CVE-2025-6253Shared CWE-862
CVE-2025-30107Shared CWE-862
CVE-2023-6821Shared CWE-862
CVE-2025-64132Shared CWE-862
CVE-2025-31736Shared CWE-862

Affected Assets

openclaw
openclaw
≤ 2026.4.9

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • AC-3 Access Enforcement
  • AC-4 Information Flow Enforcement
  • AC-6 Least Privilege
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 the navigation guards and origin/file:// access policies that the CDP act/evaluate bypass circumvents.

prevent

Enforces information flow restrictions between CDP origins and disallowed file:// pages that the vulnerability allows attackers to violate.

prevent

Limits privileges granted to browser automation contexts so that even a successful navigation-guard bypass yields minimal additional file access.

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