Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessObtain sandboxed coding-agent session
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ExploitEnumerate tools via MCP loopback
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ExecutionInvoke denied tool bypassing sandbox.tools.deny
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ImpactAccess excluded data or perform excluded action
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 an already-running sandboxed coding-agent session in OpenClaw with an MCP loopback component active and an operator-defined sandbox.tools.deny policy in place. The attacker must be able to drive that sandboxed session (local access to the session context, e.g., via a steered/malicious agent task) - this is not remotely reachable without such a session, hence AV:L and PR:L. Impact is limited by exactly which tools the operator denied: a deny-list of benign tools yields minor exposure, while denied high-capability tools raise the stakes. No user interaction beyond the attacker's own session control is needed. Fixed in 2026.8.1. |
| Impact | This is a genuinely low-priority issue despite carrying a 'sandbox bypass' label. The vendor CVSS 4.0 vector (AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:L/VI:N/VA:N, base 4.8) tells the real story: exploitation is LOCAL (the attacker must already possess a sandboxed coding-agent session), requires low privileges within that session, and yields only LOW confidentiality impact per the vendor. There is no EPSS score, no CISA KEV listing, and no public exploit code identified at time of analysis, so all threat-intelligence signals point to no observed or predicted exploitation. The vulnerability is a policy-enforcement gap (CWE-862 Missing Authorization) rather than a memory-safety or RCE flaw. One tension worth noting: the vendor scored VI:N/VA:N (no integrity/availability impact), yet the description explicitly states attackers can 'perform actions the operator intended to exclude' - invoking denied tools plausibly carries at least low integrity impact, which I reflect in my independent assessment. The real-world risk ceiling is entirely determined by WHICH tools the operator placed in sandbox.tools.deny; the CVE abstracts that away, so the '4.8' is a floor for a benign deny-list and could be higher where dangerous tools were denied. Net: not a fire-drill; patch on normal cadence. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker who already controls or influences a sandboxed coding-agent session (e.g., via a malicious prompt/task steering the agent) uses the MCP loopback path to enumerate and call tools the operator explicitly placed on the sandbox.tools.deny list, reaching data or capabilities meant to be walled off from the sandbox. No public exploit code exists; exploitation is local to an existing sandbox session and constrained by which tools were denied. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Sep 26, 2026
Sandbox policy bypass in OpenClaw before 2026.8.1 allows a sandboxed coding-agent session to list and invoke tools that the operator explicitly placed on the sandbox.tools.deny list, because the MCP loopback path does not enforce the same tool-exclusion policy as the normal tool-invocation path. The flaw is local in nature (CVSS 4.0 AV:L/PR:L) and requires an already-running sandboxed session with an active MCP loopback component and a configured deny policy, so practical exposure is bounded by exactly which tools an operator chose to deny - a benign deny-list yields minor exposure, while denied high-capability tools raise the stakes. No public exploit code has been identified at time of analysis, and the vendor has released a fix in 2026.8.1.
RemediationAI
Upgrade OpenClaw to 2026.8.1 or later - this is the vendor-released fix and the only complete resolution - using the guidance in GHSA-5m4g-88rg-69pj (https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/security/advisories/GHSA-5m4g-88rg-69pj) and the VulnCheck advisory (https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/openclaw-before-2026.8.1-sandbox-policy-bypass-via-mcp-loopback). Where immediate patching is not possible, treat sandbox.tools.deny as non-binding for MCP loopback sessions: do not rely on deny-listing alone to fence off powerful tools, and instead remove the credentials, filesystem paths, network reachability, or upstream service permissions those denied tools would need, accepting that this reduces agent functionality. Disabling the MCP loopback component (or the sandboxed tool-invocation feature entirely) eliminates the bypass but breaks agent tool use, so scope it to untrusted or externally steered sessions only. Additionally, restrict who or what can drive a sandboxed session, since the flaw requires an attacker-controlled agent task inside a running session, and enable tool-invocation logging to detect attempts to enumerate or call denied tools. Given the low assessed severity, these compensating controls are adequate interim measures rather than an emergency response.
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 a coding-agent platform that runs agent sessions inside a sandbox and constrains the tools those sessions may call through an operator-defined sandbox.tools.deny policy. Tool invocation is brokered over MCP (Model Context Protocol); the affected code is the MCP loopback component, which is intended to let the agent reach local tool services. CWE-862 (Missing Authorization) is the right root-cause class here: authorization for the deny-list is enforced on one code path but not on the loopback path, so a session that should have been blocked from a denied tool can still enumerate and invoke it. This is a policy-enforcement gap rather than a memory-safety or injection bug - there is no privilege escalation beyond the privileges the agent session already holds, and no remote reachability. The independent assessment scores it CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N, i.e. low confidentiality and low integrity impact with local access and low privileges required, which is consistent with the CVSS 4.0 vector's AV:L/PR:L and low confidentiality impact. The CPE cpe:2.3:a:openclaw:openclaw:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* and the EUVD affected-version data both confirm that all OpenClaw releases prior to 2026.8.1 are in scope.
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Severity by source
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:L/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Local to an existing sandboxed session (AV:L, PR:L); low complexity; C:L and I:L because denied tools can both read data and perform excluded actions, impact bounded by the deny-list contents.
Primary rating from Vendor (VulnCheck).
CVSS VectorVendor: VulnCheck
Lifecycle Timeline
1DescriptionCVE.org
OpenClaw versions before 2026.8.1 contain a sandbox policy bypass vulnerability in the MCP loopback component that allows sandboxed coding-agent sessions to invoke tools explicitly denied by sandbox.tools.deny policy. Attackers can list and invoke denied tools to access data or perform actions the operator intended to exclude from the sandbox.
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-2026-87478
GHSA-v9f5-4mfv-5533
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
VulDB
Exploit-DB