What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-33579: OpenClaw < 2026.3.28 - Privilege Escalation via Missing Caller Scope Validation in Device Pair Approval

• Severity: critical (CVSS 9.9 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.8% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2026-03-31 · updated 2026-07-24
• Weakness: CWE-863

Description

OpenClaw before 2026.3.28 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability in the /pair approve command path that fails to forward caller scopes into the core approval check. A caller with pairing privileges but without admin privileges can approve pending device requests asking for broader scopes including admin access by exploiting the missing scope validation in extensions/device-pair/index.ts and src/infra/device-pairing.ts.

Affected products

• OpenClaw: before 2026.3.28 — fixed in 2026.3.28

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: OpenClaw 2026.3.28. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/commit/e403decb6e20091b5402780a7ccd2085f98aa3cd
• https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/security/advisories/GHSA-hc5h-pmr3-3497
• https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/openclaw-privilege-escalation-via-missing-caller-scope-validation-in-device-pair-approval

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