OpenClaw Flaws Let Authenticated Users Escalate Privileges and Bypass Authorization

Two high-severity vulnerabilities in OpenClaw exposed paths for authenticated users to gain access beyond their intended roles. CVE-2026-32042 affects versions before 2026.2.25 and allows an attacker with valid shared gateway authentication to present a self-signed, unpaired device identity and bypass pairing requirements, then self-assign elevated operator scopes including operator.admin. The issue is classified as CWE-863 and effectively turns a trusted but unapproved device identity into a route for privilege escalation.

A second flaw, CVE-2026-32051, affects OpenClaw versions before 2026.3.1 and allows users with operator.write scope to reach owner-only tool surfaces such as gateway and cron through agent runs in scoped-token deployments. The authorization mismatch lets lower-privileged authenticated users perform control-plane actions that should be restricted to owners, creating high risk to confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Advisories for both issues point to fixes and security guidance through GitHub and VulnCheck.