OpenClaw's Zalo group sender allowlist bypass permits unauthorized GROUP dispatch
Date: 2026-03
Affected: npm/openclaw
Attack vector: auth-bypass
Category: vulnerability-disclosure
Severity: Medium
CWE: CWE-284
CWE-863

A missing group-sender authorization check in the Zalo plugin allowed unauthorized `GROUP` messages to enter agent dispatch paths in configurations intended to restrict group traffic. ## Impact When Zalo group handling was configured with allowlist-style controls, a sender not present in the intended group allowlist could still trigger agent processing through the `GROUP` message path. ## Root Cause Group access checks were not consistently enforced before dispatch for Zalo `GROUP` messages. The fix adds explicit runtime group-policy evaluation (`groupPolicy`, `groupAllowFrom`, fallback to `allowFrom`) and fail-closed behavior for missing provider config. ## Affected Packages / Versions - Package: `openclaw` (npm) - Latest published vulnerable version: `2026.2.23` (as of 2026-02-24) - Affected range: `<= 2026.2.23` - Planned patched version: `2026.2.24` ## Fix Commit(s) - `b4010a0b627025c809c0e5dbdbd4770f3bc59ef8` OpenClaw thanks @tdjackey for reporting. ### Publication Update (2026-02-25) `openclaw@2026.2.24` is published on npm and contains the fix commit(s) listed above. This advisory now marks `>= 2026.2.24` as patched.


Mitigations:

Architectural layers (MAESTRO):