Persistent gateway access via surviving WebSocket sessions
Published Apr 28, 2026 · Updated Apr 28, 2026
Session expiration failure in OpenClaw before 2026.4.8 allows remote authenticated users to retain gateway access after token rotation. The Gateway replaces its shared authentication token without closing WebSocket connections authenticated with the former token. A user with low-privileged shared-token access can continue reading and changing gateway data through an established session, although hostile users sharing one gateway are outside the vendor's supported trust boundary.
Summary
What happened
Session expiration failure in OpenClaw before 2026.4.8 allows remote authenticated users to retain gateway access after token rotation. The Gateway replaces its shared authentication token without closing WebSocket connections authenticated with the former token. A user with low-privileged shared-token access can continue reading and changing gateway data through an established session, although hostile users sharing one gateway are outside the vendor's supported trust boundary.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-42421
- Published
- Apr 28, 2026
- Updated
- Apr 28, 2026
- Vendor
- OpenClaw Foundation
- Product
- OpenClaw
- Classifications
- CWE-613
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Apr 28, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Apr 28, 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 <2026.4.8
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
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
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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