CVE-2026-35645: OpenClaw < 2026.3.25 - Privilege Escalation via Synthetic operator.admin in deleteSession

Severity: high (CVSS 8.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-04-09 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-648

Description

OpenClaw before 2026.3.25 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability in the gateway plugin subagent fallback deleteSession function that uses a synthetic operator.admin runtime scope. Attackers can exploit this by triggering session deletion without a request-scoped client to execute privileged operations with unintended administrative scope.

Affected products

OpenClaw: before 2026.3.25 — fixed in 2026.3.25

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: OpenClaw 2026.3.25. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/commit/b5d785f1a59a56c3471f2cef328f7c9a6c15f3e7
https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/security/advisories/GHSA-h4jx-hjr3-fhgc
https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/openclaw-privilege-escalation-via-synthetic-operator-admin-in-deletesession

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