Mitigation Strategies

To mitigate this vulnerability, immediately upgrade OpenClaw to version 2026.4.23 or later, where the issue is fixed by resolving webhook route secrets dynamically on every request.

Until the upgrade is applied, restart the OpenClaw gateway or plugin after rotating webhook route secrets and running `openclaw secrets reload` to ensure old cached secrets are invalidated.

This prevents attackers from continuing to use previously valid webhook route secrets after rotation.

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Compliance Impact

This vulnerability allows previously valid webhook route secrets to remain valid after secret rotation until a gateway or plugin restart occurs. This means that attackers who have obtained old secrets can continue to authenticate and invoke webhook task flows, potentially leading to unauthorized access and actions.

Such unauthorized access and failure to immediately invalidate rotated secrets can undermine security controls required by common standards and regulations like GDPR and HIPAA, which mandate timely revocation of credentials and protection of sensitive data.

Therefore, the vulnerability weakens the effectiveness of credential rotation and may lead to non-compliance with security requirements that require prompt invalidation of revoked credentials to prevent unauthorized access.

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Executive Summary

The vulnerability in OpenClaw before version 2026.4.23 involves caching of webhook route secrets that are backed by SecretRef values. When a secret is rotated and reloaded, the cached old secret remains valid until the gateway or plugin is restarted.

This means that an attacker who previously obtained a valid webhook route secret can continue to authenticate requests and invoke webhook task flows even after the secret has been changed, until the system is restarted.

The root cause is that the resolved secrets were cached per route, so changes to the secret did not take effect immediately after reload. The fix removes this caching and makes the system resolve the secret dynamically on every incoming request.

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Impact Analysis

This vulnerability can allow attackers who have previously obtained a valid webhook route secret to continue authenticating requests and triggering webhook task flows even after the secret has been rotated and reloaded.

As a result, unauthorized access and execution of webhook tasks can persist until the gateway or plugin is restarted, potentially leading to unauthorized actions or data exposure.

This undermines the security benefits of secret rotation and can increase the risk of prolonged unauthorized access.

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Detection Guidance

This vulnerability involves webhook route secrets cached and not invalidated after rotation, allowing previously valid secrets to continue authenticating requests until a gateway or plugin restart.

To detect this issue, monitor webhook authentication logs for requests authenticated with old or rotated secrets after a secret rotation or reload has been performed.

Specifically, after rotating secrets and running `openclaw secrets reload`, check if requests using the old secrets are still accepted.

Commands to assist detection might include:

• Review webhook request logs for authentication attempts using old secrets.
• Run `openclaw secrets reload` to reload secrets and then test webhook requests with previously valid secrets to see if they are still accepted.
• Use network monitoring tools to capture webhook traffic and analyze authentication headers or tokens to identify use of stale secrets.

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