Vulnerability Database

328,409

Total vulnerabilities in the database

OpenClaw Hook Session Key Override Enables Targeted Cross-Session Routing

Summary

The issue is not deterministic session keys by itself. The exploitable path was accepting externally supplied sessionKey values on authenticated hook ingress, allowing a hook token holder to route messages into chosen sessions.

Affected Behavior

  • POST /hooks/agent accepted payload sessionKey and used it directly for session routing.
  • Common session-key shapes (for example agent:main:dm:<peerId>) were often derivable from known metadata, making targeted routing practical when request-level override was enabled.

Attack Preconditions

  • Attacker can call hook endpoints with a valid hook token.
  • Hook ingress allows request-selected sessionKey values.
  • Target session keys can be derived or guessed.

Without those preconditions, deterministic key formats alone do not provide access.

Impact

  • Integrity: targeted message/prompt injection into chosen sessions.
  • Persistence: poisoned context can affect subsequent turns when the same session key is reused.
  • Confidentiality impact is secondary and depends on additional weaknesses.

Affected Versions

  • openclaw >= 2.0.0-beta3 and < 2026.2.12

Patched Versions

  • openclaw >= 2026.2.12

Fix

OpenClaw now uses secure defaults for hook session routing:

  • POST /hooks/agent rejects payload sessionKey unless hooks.allowRequestSessionKey=true.
  • Added hooks.defaultSessionKey for fixed ingress routing.
  • Added hooks.allowedSessionKeyPrefixes to constrain explicit routing keys.
  • Security audit warns on unsafe hook session-routing settings.
{ "hooks": { "enabled": true, "token": "${OPENCLAW_HOOKS_TOKEN}", "defaultSessionKey": "hook:ingress", "allowRequestSessionKey": false, "allowedSessionKeyPrefixes": ["hook:"] } }

Credit

Thanks @alpernae for responsible reporting.

CVSS v3:

  • Severity: Unknown
  • Score:
  • AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:N

CWEs:

OWASP TOP 10:

Software From Fixed in
Node.js icon openclaw 2.0.0-beta3 2026.2.12

Frequently Asked Questions

A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.

CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) estimates technical severity, but it doesn't automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, affected asset criticality, known exploitation (proof-of-concept or in-the-wild), and whether compensating controls exist. A "Medium" CVSS on an exposed, production system can be more urgent than a "Critical" on an isolated, non-production host.

A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. In practice, risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.

Recurring findings usually come from incomplete Asset Discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host. Unknown or unmanaged assets (often called Shadow IT) are a common reason the same issues resurface.

Use a simple, repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress using consistent metrics so remediation is steady, not reactive.

SynScan combines attack surface monitoring and continuous security auditing to keep your inventory current, flag high-impact vulnerabilities early, and help you turn raw findings into a practical remediation plan.