GHSA-xw77-45gv-p728
CRITICALGHSA-xw77-45gv-p728 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.4) CWE-266 vulnerability in openclaw. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-xw77-45gv-p728 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
OpenClaw: Plugin subagent routes could bypass gateway authorization with synthetic admin scopes
Blast Radius
Weekly download volume for affected packages — a proxy for how broadly this vulnerability is deployed.
openclawnpmDescription
Summary
In affected versions of openclaw, the plugin subagent runtime dispatched gateway methods through a synthetic operator client that always carried broad administrative scopes. Plugin-owned HTTP routes using auth: "plugin" could therefore trigger admin-only gateway actions without normal gateway authorization.
Impact
This is a critical authorization bypass. An external unauthenticated request to a plugin-owned route could reach privileged subagent runtime methods and perform admin-only gateway actions such as deleting sessions, reading session data, or triggering agent execution.
Affected Packages and Versions
- Package:
openclaw(npm) - Affected versions:
>= 2026.3.7, < 2026.3.11 - Fixed in:
2026.3.11
Technical Details
The new plugin subagent runtime preserved neither the original caller's auth context nor least-privilege scope. Instead, it executed gateway dispatches through a fabricated operator client with administrative scopes, which was reachable from plugin-owned routes that intentionally bypass normal gateway auth so plugins can perform their own webhook verification.
Fix
OpenClaw now preserves real authorization boundaries for plugin subagent calls instead of dispatching them through synthetic admin scopes. The fix shipped in [email protected].
Workarounds
Upgrade to 2026.3.11 or later.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | openclaw | ≥ 2026.3.7&&< 2026.3.11 | 2026.3.11 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for openclaw. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update openclaw to 2026.3.11 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-xw77-45gv-p728 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether GHSA-xw77-45gv-p728 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to GHSA-xw77-45gv-p728. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-xw77-45gv-p728 in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-xw77-45gv-p728 across npm dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.