Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessGain authorized non-owner channel access
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ExploitSend persistent '/dreaming on' or '/dreaming off'
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ExecutionOwner permission check is skipped
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ImpactMemory Core dreaming behavior toggled against owner intent
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A01:2025 - Broken Access Control
ASVS 5.0
V8 - Authorization Authorization checks on every request
MITRE ATT&CK
1 technique across 1 tactic: Privilege Escalation The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Exploitation Conditions | Requires the OpenClaw Gateway to expose the persistent '/dreaming on' and '/dreaming off' commands to external channels, and the attacker must already be an authorized (policy-admitted) but non-owner sender on such a channel - matching PR:L in the vector. Exploitation is limited by these prerequisites: the attacker needs standing authorized channel access, and the operator can fully mitigate by applying the documented workaround (disable dreaming commands in external channels, or restrict channel command access to owners). Read-only status and help commands are unaffected as they remain governed by normal command policy. |
| Impact | This is a genuinely low-severity authorization flaw, and the signals are consistent rather than conflicting. The vendor CVSS 4.0 vector (AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:L, score 5.3) describes network reach with low attacker privileges and no user interaction, but with uniformly LOW confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact - the flaw only lets a non-owner toggle a memory-processing behavior, not read/write data or execute code directly. There is no EPSS score, no CISA KEV listing, and no public exploit code in the provided data, so exploitation status is 'no public exploit identified at time of analysis.' The CWE-862 (Missing Authorization) classification matches the description precisely: an owner-only command boundary is not enforced for '/dreaming on|off'. The realistic priority is LOW: it is a missing-check bug in a niche open-source Node.js agent framework whose worst outcome is unexpected enabling/disabling of background memory promotion, with actual C/I/A consequences that depend entirely on what conversation material is stored and how memory is later used. Note that the input Tag 'Authentication Bypass' overstates the issue - this is an authorization (permission-check) gap for an already-authorized sender, not an authentication bypass. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An external-channel user who is already authorized to interact with the OpenClaw Gateway (but is not the owner) sends the persistent '/dreaming off' command, silently disabling the Memory Core's background memory processing that the owner expected to remain running - or conversely '/dreaming on' to re-enable durable memory promotion the owner had turned off. No exploit code is publicly available, and the low attack complexity means the 'attack' is simply issuing a chat command over the channel. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Sep 26, 2026
Missing authorization on the OpenClaw agent gateway's persistent memory 'dreaming' mutations lets an authenticated, policy-admitted external-channel sender who is not the owner issue the persistent '/dreaming on' and '/dreaming off' commands, thereby flipping the Gateway's Memory Core dreaming behavior. Such a sender can silently disable background memory processing or re-enable durable memory promotion that the owner intended to keep off, with confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact bounded by what conversation material is stored and how subsequent memory is used. The vendor fixed the flaw in 2026.7.1, no public exploit code or confirmed active exploitation has been identified at time of analysis, and the overall risk is genuinely low because exploitation requires standing authorized channel access and is fully mitigated by the documented workaround.
RemediationAI
Upgrade OpenClaw to the vendor-released fix version 2026.7.1, which adds the missing owner permission check; the patch is available from the vendor and the fix is confirmed in the advisory at https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/security/advisories/GHSA-22v4-33m3-8p7m and https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/openclaw-before-2026.7.1-authentication-bypass-via-memory-dreaming. If upgrading cannot be done immediately, apply the vendor-documented workaround: disable the dreaming commands in external channels, or restrict channel command access to owners - either option removes the practical attack path entirely, though restricting command access to owners can disrupt legitimate non-owner workflows that rely on the command surface. Note that read-only status and help commands are unaffected and remain governed by normal command policy, so no broader command lockdown is required as a compensating control; after patching, operators should confirm the intended persistent dreaming state for each Gateway, since an unauthorized toggle may have left memory promotion enabled or disabled contrary to owner intent before the fix was applied.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in euvd
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
OpenClaw is an agent gateway distributed via npm that brokers external-channel commands, including control commands for its Memory Core, which persists durable memory across sessions through a 'dreaming' mechanism. The root cause is CWE-862 (Missing Authorization): the persistent variants of the '/dreaming on' and '/dreaming off' commands mutate gateway state without enforcing an owner permission check, unlike the read-only status and help commands that remain governed by normal command policy. The affected code path is therefore a state-changing administrative operation exposed through the same channel-command surface used for ordinary interaction. The CVSS 4.0 vector (AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N, with low C/I/A and no subsequent-system impact) is consistent with the independent CVSS 3.1 assessment of AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L: the attacker must already hold a low-privilege, policy-admitted position on an external channel (PR:L) and cannot reach the functionality unauthenticated. The issue is tracked as EUVD-2026-87459 and tagged Authentication Bypass, Node.js, and Openclaw.
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Severity by source
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Authorized non-owner sender (PR:L) issues a network chat command with no interaction (AV:N/AC:L/UI:N); toggling memory behavior yields only low, material-dependent C/I/A impact with no scope change.
Primary rating from Vendor (VulnCheck).
CVSS VectorVendor: VulnCheck
Lifecycle Timeline
1DescriptionCVE.org
OpenClaw is an agent gateway distributed via npm. In versions >= 2026.4.10 and < 2026.7.1, persistent memory dreaming mutations omit owner permission checks. An authorized but non-owner external-channel sender can issue the persistent '/dreaming on' and '/dreaming off' commands to enable or disable the Gateway's Memory Core dreaming behavior, disabling background memory processing or re-enabling durable memory promotion where the owner expected it to remain disabled; the practical confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact depends on stored conversation material and subsequent memory use. Read-only status and help commands remain governed by normal command policy. The issue is fixed in version 2026.7.1. As a workaround, disable dreaming commands in external channels or restrict channel command access to owners.
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Auth bypass in OpenClaw voice-call extension before 2026.2.1. EPSS 0.68%. PoC and patch available.
Privilege escalation in OpenClaw (pre-2026.3.28) allows unauthenticated remote attackers to gain administrative access b
OpenClaw versions 2026.2.22 through 2026.2.24 contain a privilege escalation vulnerability that allows authenticated att
An authorization mismatch vulnerability in OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.3.1 allows authenticated users with operator.
OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.1.29 automatically establish WebSocket connections to attacker-controlled gateway URLs e
Path traversal in OpenClaw through version 2026.3.23 enables unauthenticated remote attackers to read arbitrary files in
Directory-context bypass in OpenClaw before 2026.8.1 allows authenticated attackers with user interaction to reuse an 'a
Unauthenticated access to the noVNC observer interface in OpenClaw's Docker sandbox browser allows anyone who can reach
OpenClaw versions before 2026.2.26 allow authenticated attackers to write arbitrary files outside the workspace director
OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.2.22 contain a shell environment variable injection vulnerability in the system.run func
OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.2.22 contain a resource exhaustion vulnerability where the application fails to consiste
OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.3.1 contain a sandbox escape vulnerability that allows authenticated attackers with low
EUVD-2026-87459
GHSA-whch-3w2v-cfr2
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
VulDB
Exploit-DB