Which versions of OpenClaw are affected by CVE-2026-41371?

CVE-2026-41371 is a privilege escalation vulnerability in OpenClaw's chat.send API that allows low-privileged users to perform administrator-level session management operations, including forcibly…. A patch is available.

How to fix or mitigate CVE-2026-41371?

Within 24 hours: Inventory all OpenClaw deployments and identify users with write scope to chat.send API; restrict gateway caller permissions to minimum necessary scope and implement compensating access controls. Within 7 days: Monitor OpenClaw audit logs for anomalous session management operations (resets, rotations, archives); isolate any instances showing unauthorized activity. Within 30 days: Contact OpenClaw vendor for patch timeline and schedule immediate deployment upon availability; consider architectural changes to separate session management APIs from unprivileged chat endpoints.

OpenClaw CVE-2026-41371

Q: What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-41371?

CVE-2026-41371 has a CVSS 4.0 base score of 8.4 (High). CVSS vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:L/SC:N/SI:H/SA:L/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 exploitation probability: 0.0%.

HIGH

Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863)

2026-04-28 disclosure@vulncheck.com

Authentication Bypass Privilege Escalation Openclaw

8.4

CVSS 4.0 · NVD

Severity by source

NVD PRIMARY

8.4 HIGH

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:L/SC:N/SI:H/SA:L/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

Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.

CVSS VectorNVD

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:L/SC:N/SI:H/SA:L/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

Attack Vector

Network

Attack Complexity

Low

Privileges Required

Low

User Interaction

None

Scope

Lifecycle Timeline

Re-analysis Queued

Apr 28, 2026 - 16:37 vuln.today

cvss_changed

Analysis Generated

Apr 28, 2026 - 00:32 vuln.today

Analysis Generated

Apr 28, 2026 - 00:22 vuln.today

CVE Published

Apr 28, 2026 - 00:16 nvd

HIGH 8.4

Blast Radius

ecosystem impact

† from your stack dependencies † transitive graph · vuln.today resolves 4-path depth

3 npm packages depend on openclaw (3 direct, 0 indirect)

Ecosystem-wide dependent count for version 2026.3.28.

DescriptionCVE.org

OpenClaw before 2026.3.28 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability in chat.send that allows write-scoped gateway callers to trigger admin-only session reset operations. Attackers can rotate target sessions, archive prior transcript state, and force new session IDs without requiring admin scope by exploiting improper authorization checks in the chat.send path.

AnalysisAI

Privilege escalation in OpenClaw chat.send API allows low-privileged gateway callers with write scope to execute admin-only session management operations. Attackers can forcibly reset user sessions, rotate session IDs, and archive chat transcripts without admin authorization by exploiting broken access control in the chat messaging path. This enables session hijacking and data manipulation attacks against legitimate users. Reported by VulnCheck disclosure team with vendor security advisory published; no public exploit or active exploitation confirmed at time of analysis.

Technical ContextAI

OpenClaw is a gateway service providing chat session management capabilities. The vulnerability stems from CWE-863 (Incorrect Authorization) in the chat.send API endpoint, which fails to validate caller scope before executing privileged operations. The affected code path incorrectly trusts write-scoped credentials to invoke admin-restricted session lifecycle functions including reset, ID rotation, and transcript archival. The CVSS 4.0 vector indicates network-accessible exploitation with low complexity and low privileges required (PR:L), meaning any authenticated user with basic write permissions can escalate to admin-level session control. The vulnerability exists in all versions prior to the 2026.3.28 release, which implemented proper authorization checks separating write and admin scopes in the chat.send handler.

RemediationAI

Upgrade to OpenClaw version 2026.3.28 or later, which implements proper authorization scope validation in the chat.send endpoint to prevent write-scoped callers from executing admin-only session operations. Review the vendor security advisory at https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/security/advisories/GHSA-5r8f-96gm-5j6g and VulnCheck advisory at https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/openclaw-privilege-escalation-via-chat-send-reset-command for complete remediation steps. If immediate patching is not feasible, implement API gateway-level access controls to restrict chat.send calls to admin-scoped credentials only, though this effectively disables legitimate write-scoped chat functionality and may break application workflows. Alternatively, deploy network segmentation to isolate OpenClaw instances per user or tenant, preventing cross-user session manipulation, but this introduces operational overhead and does not address the underlying authorization flaw. Audit existing session logs for unauthorized reset operations executed by non-admin accounts to identify potential prior exploitation.