What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-53814: OpenClaw < 2026.5.20 - Privilege Escalation via Hook-Triggered CLI MCP Tool Authority

• Severity: high (CVSS 8.3 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: 2026-06-11 · updated 2026-06-17
• Weakness: CWE-266

Description

OpenClaw before 2026.5.20 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability where hook-triggered agent runs incorrectly receive owner-scoped MCP loopback authority instead of hook-appropriate scope. Attackers with a valid hook token can exploit the /hooks/agent endpoint to cause spawned CLI runtimes to access or invoke owner-only MCP tools, potentially executing privileged actions like persistent cron state modifications.

Affected products

• OpenClaw: before 2026.5.20 — fixed in 2026.5.20

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: OpenClaw 2026.5.20. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/security/advisories/GHSA-6fvr-66p3-3qj4
• https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/openclaw-privilege-escalation-via-hook-triggered-cli-mcp-tool-authority

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