The vulnerability lies in how OpenClaw handles DM pairing-store identities. In versions older than 2026.2.26 the system incorrectly grants group allowlist permissions to identities that were authorized through DM pairing. An attacker who can leverage a DM pairing identity—either by creating one or reusing an existing one—can cause the application to treat that identity as if it were explicitly listed in a group's allowlist. The result is that the attacker can send messages to or read messages from a group for which they normally lack permission, leading to disclosure of private conversations or potential injection of malicious content. The weakness corresponds to an authorization control failure.

OpenClaw is the affected software. All releases prior to 2026.2.26, which includes every version from the first public release up through 2026.2.25, are vulnerable. The advisory specifies that the issue was fixed in the 2026.2.26 release, so any instance running a version earlier than that should be considered at risk.

The CVSS score of 7.1 indicates a high impact with medium exploitability. The EPSS metric shows a probability of less than 1 %, suggesting that automated exploitation is uncommon at present. The vulnerability is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog, so there is no evidence of active exploitation in the wild yet. Based on the description, the likely attack vector is a remote or local exploit that requires the attacker to gain control of a DM pairing identity, which could be achieved through social engineering or by compromising a legitimate user's credentials. Once the attacker has an accepted DM pairing identity, they can bypass the group allowlist and read or post in the restricted group.