CVE-2026-28394: Openclaw Denial of Service Vulnerability

MODERATE
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-p536-vvpp-9mc8
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CVSS 6.5
CWE-400
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2026-28394 is a MODERATE (CVSS 6.5) denial of service vulnerability (CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption) affecting Openclaw libraries in the npm ecosystem. The issue involves openclaw has a web fetch dos via unbounded response parsing. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 2026.2.15.

CVE-2026-28394 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2026-28394
GHSA Identifier GHSA-p536-vvpp-9mc8
Severity MODERATE
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 6.5
CWE Classification CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
Affected Product Openclaw
Package Ecosystem npm
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 6.5

The security impact metrics below are parsed directly from the CVSS v3.1 vector string (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).

Attack Vector Network (AV:N)
Attack Complexity Low (AC:L)
Privileges Required None (PR:N)
User Interaction Required (UI:R)
Scope Unchanged (S:U)
Confidentiality None (C:N)
Integrity None (I:N)
Availability High (A:H)

How to Fix CVE-2026-28394

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Openclaw dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.

openclaw fixed: 2026.2.15 
npm install openclaw@2026.2.15
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release: 

npm ls openclaw

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your Node.js application is affected by CVE-2026-28394, inspect your project dependencies using npm:

npm ls openclaw

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Openclaw in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 2026.2.15), your application is affected.

Note: The npm ls openclaw command inspects dependencies declared in your package.json and lockfile; it does not perform automated runtime dynamic scanning.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption, where the product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource. In Openclaw, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.

Source Advisory Statement

### Summary The `web_fetch` tool could be used to crash the OpenClaw Gateway process (OOM / resource exhaustion) by fetching and attempting to parse attacker-controlled web pages with oversized response bodies or pathological HTML nesting. ### Affected Packages / Versions - Package: `openclaw` (npm) - Affected versions: `<= 2026.2.14` - Fixed versions: `>= 2026.2.15` ### Impact An attacker can social-engineer a user (or any automation that uses `web_fetch`) into fetching a malicious URL that returns extremely large or deeply nested HTML. The Gateway may exhaust memory or become unresponsive, causing a denial of service. ### Fix The Gateway now caps the downloaded response body size before any HTML parsing and adds additional guards to avoid running Readability/DOM parsing on pathological HTML. ### Fix Commit(s) - 166cf6a3e04c7df42bea70a7ad5ce2b9df46d147 ### Release Process Note This advisory is prepared for the next npm release. Once `openclaw@2026.2.15` is published, publish this advisory without further edits. Thanks @xuemian168 for reporting.

CVE-2026-28394 Affected Openclaw Versions

1 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
2026.2.15
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
openclaw
npm/openclaw
npm
< 2026.2.15
2026.2.15

References

GitHub Advisory / Wiki ADVISORY
https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/security/advisories/GHSA-p536-vvpp-9mc8
Security Fix Commit FIX COMMIT
https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/commit/166cf6a3e04c7df42bea70a7ad5ce2b9df46d147
Openclaw Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw
Openclaw Release RELEASE
https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/releases/tag/v2026.2.15

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-28394?
CVE-2026-28394 is a security vulnerability in Openclaw involving OpenClaw has a Web Fetch DoS via unbounded response parsing under CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption.
Which Openclaw versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 2026.2.15 across affected packages: openclaw.
What version fixes CVE-2026-28394?
Upgrading to 2026.2.15 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is openclaw affected?
Yes, openclaw is affected in releases prior to 2026.2.15. Upgrade your dependency to 2026.2.15 or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-28394?
CVE-2026-28394 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 6.5 (MODERATE) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2026-28394?
CVE-2026-28394 is classified under CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.).
How can I check npm dependencies for CVE-2026-28394?
Run the dependency tree command: 'npm ls openclaw'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
View Raw JSON 
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-p536-vvpp-9mc8",
  "modified" : "2026-03-05T21:42:20Z",
  "published" : "2026-02-19T19:40:56Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2026-28394" ],
  "summary" : "OpenClaw has a Web Fetch DoS via unbounded response parsing",
  "details" : "### Summary\nThe `web_fetch` tool could be used to crash the OpenClaw Gateway process (OOM / resource exhaustion) by fetching and attempting to parse attacker-controlled web pages with oversized response bodies or pathological HTML nesting.\n\n### Affected Packages / Versions\n- Package: `openclaw` (npm)\n- Affected versions: `<= 2026.2.14`\n- Fixed versions: `>= 2026.2.15`\n\n### Impact\nAn attacker can social-engineer a user (or any automation that uses `web_fetch`) into fetching a malicious URL that returns extremely large or deeply nested HTML. The Gateway may exhaust memory or become unresponsive, causing a denial of service.\n\n### Fix\nThe Gateway now caps the downloaded response body size before any HTML parsing and adds additional guards to avoid running Readability/DOM parsing on pathological HTML.\n\n### Fix Commit(s)\n- 166cf6a3e04c7df42bea70a7ad5ce2b9df46d147\n\n### Release Process Note\nThis advisory is prepared for the next npm release. Once `openclaw@2026.2.15` is published, publish this advisory without further edits.\n\nThanks @xuemian168 for reporting.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "npm",
      "name" : "openclaw"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "2026.2.15"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/security/advisories/GHSA-p536-vvpp-9mc8"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/commit/166cf6a3e04c7df42bea70a7ad5ce2b9df46d147"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/releases/tag/v2026.2.15"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-400" ],
    "severity" : "MODERATE",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2026-02-19T19:40:56Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : null
  }
}