SecurityScorecard’s STRIKE team published alarming research this week: 40,214 internet-exposed OpenClaw instances — 42,900 unique IPs across 82 countries — are reachable from the public internet. Of those, 35.4% (~15,200 instances) are vulnerable to immediate exploitation, including Remote Code Execution.

Three high-severity CVEs with public exploit code are at the center of this exposure. If you’re running OpenClaw on any machine that isn’t air-gapped or VPN-isolated, this guide is for you.

The Three CVEs You Need to Know

CVE-2026-25253 — One-Click RCE via WebSocket Token Theft (CVSS 8.8)

Affects: Versions before 2026.1.29

The OpenClaw gateway exposes a WebSocket endpoint for real-time agent communication. In versions before 2026.1.29, authentication tokens could be stolen via a crafted webpage — a single browser visit to a malicious site could hand an attacker full RCE on the gateway process.

Fix: Update to v2026.2.1 or later.

CVE-2026-25157 — SSH Command Injection on macOS (CVSS 7.8)

Affects: macOS deployments only

A command injection vulnerability in the SSH transport layer allows an attacker with network access to inject arbitrary shell commands through malformed SSH connection strings. macOS-specific path handling makes this exploitable in ways that don’t trigger on Linux.

Fix: Update to v2026.2.1 or later. If you can’t update immediately, disable SSH-based agent features.

CVE-2026-24763 — Docker Sandbox Escape via PATH Manipulation (CVSS 7.8)

Affects: Deployments using Docker sandbox mode

The Docker sandbox intended to isolate agent execution can be escaped by an attacker who controls PATH environment variables during container init. This grants host-level access.

Fix: Update to v2026.2.1 or later. Verify your Docker socket is not mounted read-write to agent containers.

Step-by-Step Hardening Checklist

Work through these in order. Each step is actionable and most take less than five minutes.

Step 1: Check Your OpenClaw Version

openclaw --version

You should be on v2026.2.1 or later. If you’re behind:

npm update -g openclaw

Or follow your package manager’s update path. Confirm the version after updating.

Step 2: Audit Your Gateway Binding

The root cause for the majority of exposed instances is a default that binds the gateway to 0.0.0.0:18789 — meaning it listens on all network interfaces, including public ones.

Check your current binding:

openclaw gateway status

Look for the bind field. If it says 0.0.0.0, you’re exposed.

Fix it by editing your OpenClaw config (typically ~/.openclaw/config.json or ~/.openclaw/config.yaml):

{
  "gateway": {
    "bind": "127.0.0.1",
    "port": 18789
  }
}

Restart the gateway:

openclaw gateway restart

Verify the fix:

ss -tlnp | grep 18789

You should see 127.0.0.1:18789, not 0.0.0.0:18789.

Step 3: Enable Authentication

Default OpenClaw installs may not have auth enabled. Check:

openclaw gateway status | grep auth

To enable authentication:

openclaw gateway config --auth-enabled true --mfa true

Or set in your config file:

{
  "gateway": {
    "auth": {
      "enabled": true,
      "mfa": true
    }
  }
}

Step 4: Add a VPN, Tailscale, or Cloudflare Tunnel

Even with 127.0.0.1 binding, if you need remote access to your OpenClaw instance, don’t open port 18789 to the internet directly. Use one of these:

Tailscale (recommended for most users):

curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh
tailscale up

Then access your gateway at http://100.x.x.x:18789 (your Tailscale IP) rather than your public IP.

Cloudflare Tunnel:

cloudflared tunnel create openclaw
cloudflared tunnel route dns openclaw openclaw.yourdomain.com

This gives you HTTPS + Cloudflare’s DDoS protection without exposing any port directly.

Step 5: Verify Docker Sandbox Configuration (CVE-2026-24763)

If you use Docker sandbox mode for agent execution:

docker inspect <your-openclaw-agent-container> | grep -A5 Mounts

Ensure the Docker socket (/var/run/docker.sock) is not mounted into agent containers. If it is, remove it from your compose file or container config.

Also verify no writable PATH overrides exist:

docker inspect <container> | grep -i path

Step 6: Check the STRIKE Dashboard

SecurityScorecard has a live dashboard that tracks exposed OpenClaw instances, updated every 15 minutes:

👉 declawed.io — search for your IP or organization to see if you appear in their scan.

If you appear there after applying these fixes, wait 30 minutes and recheck. The dashboard updates frequently.

Quick Reference: Exposure Matrix

CVE Severity Affected Versions Fix Version Exploitation
CVE-2026-25253 CVSS 8.8 < 2026.1.29 v2026.2.1+ Public exploit available
CVE-2026-25157 CVSS 7.8 macOS only v2026.2.1+ Network access required
CVE-2026-24763 CVSS 7.8 Docker sandbox v2026.2.1+ PATH manipulation

Don’t Stop at Patching

The SecurityScorecard research makes a deeper point worth sitting with: agentic AI tools are uniquely dangerous when exposed. Unlike a standard web app, a compromised OpenClaw instance doesn’t just leak data — it can autonomously execute actions across all connected systems, send messages, deploy services, and modify files at the direction of an attacker.

Patch, yes. But also audit your agent permissions, rotate credentials, and treat your OpenClaw instance with the same posture you’d treat a root shell.

Sources

  1. SecurityScorecard STRIKE — How Exposed OpenClaw Deployments Turn Agentic AI Into an Attack Surface
  2. SecurityScorecard — Beyond the Hype: MoltBot’s Real Risk Is Exposed Infrastructure
  3. TechBriefly — OpenClaw AI Agent Flaw Exposes Over 28,000 Systems
  4. STRIKE Live Dashboard — declawed.io

Researched by Searcher → Analyzed by Analyst → Written by Writer Agent (Sonnet 4.6). Full pipeline log: subagentic-20260423-2000

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