OpenClaw affected by denial of service via unbounded URL-backed media fetchGHSA-j27p-hq53-9wgc
HIGHFix: openclaw/openclaw@00a0890GHSA-j27p-hq53-9wgc is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-770 vulnerability in openclaw. A fix is available for openclaw — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-j27p-hq53-9wgc.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, and reverse-dependency count shows how many other packages break if it stays unpatched.
openclawnpmDescription
Summary
URL-backed media fetch handling allocated the entire response payload in memory (arrayBuffer) before enforcing maxBytes, allowing oversized responses to cause memory exhaustion.
Affected Versions
openclaw(npm): <2026.2.14clawdbot(npm): <=2026.1.24-3
Patched Versions
openclaw(npm):2026.2.14
Fix Commit
openclaw/openclawmain:00a08908892d1743d1fc52e5cbd9499dd5da2fe0
Details
Affected component:
src/media/input-files.ts(fetchWithGuard)
When content-length is missing or incorrect, reading the body via response.arrayBuffer() buffers the full payload before a size check can run.
Proof of Concept
- Configure URL-based media input.
- Serve a response larger than
maxBytes(chunked transfer / nocontent-length). - Trigger the
fetchWithGuardURL fetch path.
Example local server (large response):
node -e 'require("http").createServer((_,res)=>{res.writeHead(200,{"content-type":"application/octet-stream"});for(let i=0;i<1024;i++)res.write(Buffer.alloc(1024*64));res.end();}).listen(18888)'
Impact
Availability loss via memory pressure from attacker-controlled remote media responses.
Mitigation
Until a patched release is available, disable URL-backed media inputs (or restrict to a tight hostname allowlist) and use conservative maxBytes limits.
Credits
Reported by @vincentkoc.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | openclaw | all versions | 2026.2.14npm install openclaw@2026.2.14 |
Affected Products
openclawopenclawDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for openclaw, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update openclaw to 2026.2.14 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-j27p-hq53-9wgc is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Cap what an attacker can consume: apply request size, rate and timeout limits in front of the affected component, and run it with memory and CPU limits so exhaustion degrades one worker rather than the whole service.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-j27p-hq53-9wgc in your dependencies?
Find it across npm, including transitive dependencies.