OpenClaw Flaw Gave Attackers Silent Admin Access

A critical vulnerability in OpenClaw, the viral AI agentic tool with 347,000 GitHub stars, allowed attackers with the lowest-level permissions to silently escalate to full administrative control. The flaw required no user interaction beyond an initial pairing step, giving attackers access to all connected data sources, stored credentials, and linked services. The damage potential is amplified by the tool's design: OpenClaw operates with broad access to files, accounts, and platforms like Slack and Discord. Patches dropped Sunday but CVEs weren't published until Tuesday, giving attackers a two-day head start. Worse, 63 percent of exposed instances were running without authentication entirely.