High severity · published Apr 28, 2026
CVE-2026-42429
OpenClaw < 2026.4.8 - Privilege Escalation via Gateway Plugin HTTP Authentication
7.1
CVSS
0.2%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
OpenClaw before 2026.4.8 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability in the gateway plugin HTTP authentication mechanism that escalates identity-bearing operator.read requests to runtime operator.write permissions. Attackers can exploit this by sending read-scoped requests through the gateway auth route to gain unauthorized write access to runtime operations.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:N
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
High
Availability
None
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.2% · higher than 15% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
OP
OpenClaw · OpenClaw
before 2026.4.8 · source: vendor, NVD
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-42429
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-42429
Patch
https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/commit/d7c3210cd6f5fdfdc1beff4c9541673e814354d5
Vendor Advisory
https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/security/advisories/GHSA-4f8g-77mw-3rxc
Third Party Advisory
https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/openclaw-privilege-escalation-via-gateway-plugin-http-authentication
More from OpenClaw
9.9
CVE-2026-41329
OpenClaw < 2026.3.31 - Sandbox Bypass via Heartbeat Context Inheritance and senderIsOwner Escalation
9.9
CVE-2026-33579
OpenClaw < 2026.3.28 - Privilege Escalation via Missing Caller Scope Validation in Device Pair Approval
9.9
CVE-2026-32922
OpenClaw < 2026.3.11 - Privilege Escalation via Unvalidated Scope in device.token.rotate
9.9
CVE-2026-32048
OpenClaw < 2026.3.1 - Sandbox Escape via Cross-Agent sessions_spawn
9.9
CVE-2026-22172
OpenClaw < 2026.3.12 - Scope Elevation in WebSocket Shared-Auth Connections