Service interruption via pre-policy Nostr decryption
Published Apr 9, 2026 · Updated Apr 9, 2026
Incorrect behavior order in OpenClaw before 2026.3.22 allows remote attackers to exhaust resources through crafted Nostr direct messages. The Nostr channel decrypts and dispatches inbound content before channel.ts enforces sender and pairing policy, while nostr-bus.ts lacks pre-crypto size and rate guards. No authentication or user interaction is required; unknown senders can force unbounded cryptographic work and interrupt the Gateway service.
Summary
What happened
Incorrect behavior order in OpenClaw before 2026.3.22 allows remote attackers to exhaust resources through crafted Nostr direct messages. The Nostr channel decrypts and dispatches inbound content before channel.ts enforces sender and pairing policy, while nostr-bus.ts lacks pre-crypto size and rate guards. No authentication or user interaction is required; unknown senders can force unbounded cryptographic work and interrupt the Gateway service.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-35627
- Published
- Apr 9, 2026
- Updated
- Apr 9, 2026
- Vendor
- OpenClaw Foundation
- Product
- OpenClaw
- Classifications
- CWE-696, CWE-863, T1499.002
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Apr 9, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Apr 9, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=0 <2026.3.22
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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