Severity by source
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/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:X
Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.
CVSS VectorNVD
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/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:X
Lifecycle Timeline
8Blast Radius
ecosystem impact- 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 accepts unbounded concurrent unauthenticated WebSocket upgrades without pre-authentication budget allocation. Unauthenticated network attackers can exhaust socket and worker capacity to disrupt WebSocket availability for legitimate clients.
AnalysisAI
Denial of service in OpenClaw (pre-2026.3.28) allows remote unauthenticated attackers to exhaust server resources by flooding the application with concurrent WebSocket upgrade requests. The vulnerability stems from lack of rate-limiting and resource budgeting before authentication, enabling attackers to monopolize socket and worker thread capacity and block legitimate WebSocket clients. No active exploitation confirmed (not in CISA KEV), but the technical barrier is low given unauthenticated network access (CVSS:4.0 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N). VulnCheck reported this vulnerability with vendor advisory available on GitHub.
Technical ContextAI
This is a resource exhaustion vulnerability (CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling) in OpenClaw's WebSocket handling subsystem. The affected product (cpe:2.3:a:openclaw:openclaw:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*) fails to implement pre-authentication resource budgets or connection rate-limiting for WebSocket upgrade requests. WebSocket protocol (RFC 6455) begins with an HTTP Upgrade handshake - the vulnerable code allocates server-side socket descriptors and worker threads during this handshake phase without verifying caller identity or enforcing concurrency limits. An attacker can initiate thousands of upgrade handshakes simultaneously, consuming file descriptors (typically limited per process by ulimit) and thread pool resources, preventing the server from accepting new connections. This is distinct from application-layer DoS - the attack occurs at the protocol handshake layer before any authentication logic executes.
RemediationAI
Upgrade to OpenClaw version 2026.3.28 or later, which implements pre-authentication resource budgeting for WebSocket upgrade requests per the vendor advisory at https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/security/advisories/GHSA-f44p-c7w9-7xr7. If immediate patching is not feasible, implement compensating controls at the network perimeter: deploy a reverse proxy (nginx, HAProxy, Cloudflare) with WebSocket connection rate-limiting rules (e.g., limit to 10 concurrent upgrade requests per source IP per minute) and total concurrent WebSocket connection caps. Trade-off: aggressive rate-limiting may block legitimate clients behind NAT/CGNAT sharing IP addresses - monitor false positive rates and adjust thresholds based on baseline traffic patterns. Additional mitigation: configure OS-level limits (ulimit -n) and application thread pool sizes as defense-in-depth, though this only delays exhaustion rather than preventing it. Block WebSocket upgrade paths entirely via firewall rules if WebSocket functionality is not required, but this breaks legitimate WebSocket-dependent features.
Auth bypass in OpenClaw voice-call extension before 2026.2.1. EPSS 0.68%. PoC and patch available.
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Same technique Denial Of Service
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External POC / Exploit Code
Leaving vuln.today
EUVD-2026-26107