Running the security audit

openclaw security audit

Run this after any config change or before exposing network surfaces:

openclaw security audit
openclaw security audit --deep    # attempts a live Gateway check
openclaw security audit --fix     # apply safe remediations
openclaw security audit --json

--fix is intentionally narrow: it flips open group policies to allowlists, tightens state/config/include-file permissions (600 files, 700 dirs), and on Windows uses ACL resets instead of POSIX chmod.

What the audit checks (high level)

• Inbound access - DM/group policies, allowlists: can strangers trigger the bot?
• Cross-agent session access - two or more agents with default Gateway-wide session visibility and unrestricted agent-to-agent access: info for one operator's personas, warn when sandboxing, agent-level tool restrictions, or shared-user ingress suggest different trust levels. Fully sandboxed rosters under the default spawn-tree clamp produce no finding; setting agents.defaults.sandbox.sessionToolsVisibility to "all" disables that exemption.
• Tool blast radius - elevated tools + open rooms: could prompt injection become shell/file/network actions?
• Exec filesystem drift - mutating filesystem tools denied while exec/process stay available without sandbox constraints.
• Exec approval drift - security="full", autoAllowSkills, interpreter allowlists without strictInlineEval. security="full" alone is a broad posture warning, not proof of a bug - it is the chosen default for trusted-operator setups; tighten it only when your threat model needs approval or allowlist guardrails.
• Network exposure - Gateway bind/auth, Tailscale Serve/Funnel, weak/short auth tokens and passwords.
• Browser control exposure - remote nodes, relay ports, remote CDP endpoints.
• Local disk hygiene - permissions, symlinks, config includes, synced-folder paths.
• Plugins - loading without an explicit allowlist.
• Policy drift - sandbox Docker settings configured but sandbox mode off; gateway.nodes.commands.deny entries that look effective but only match exact command IDs (for example system.run), not shell text inside the payload; dangerous gateway.nodes.commands.allow entries; global tools.profile="minimal" overridden per agent; plugin-owned tools reachable under a permissive policy.
• Runtime expectation drift - assuming implicit exec still means sandbox when tools.exec.host now defaults to auto, or setting tools.exec.host="sandbox" while sandbox mode is off.

Each finding has a structured checkId (for example gateway.bind_no_auth, tools.exec.security_full_configured). Prefixes: fs.* (permissions), gateway.* (bind/auth/Tailscale/Control UI/trusted-proxy), hooks.*/browser.*/sandbox.*/tools.exec.* (per-surface hardening), plugins.*/skills.* (supply chain), security.exposure.* (access policy x tool blast radius), security.trust_model.* (shared-context and cross-agent defaults). Full catalog with severity and auto-fix support: Security audit checks. See also Formal Verification.

Priority order when triaging findings

1. Anything "open" + tools enabled: lock down DMs/groups first (pairing/allowlists), then tighten tool policy/sandboxing.
2. Public network exposure (LAN bind, Funnel, missing auth): fix immediately.
3. Browser control remote exposure: treat like operator access (tailnet-only, pair nodes deliberately, no public exposure).
4. Permissions: state/config/credentials/auth must not be group/world-readable.
5. Plugins: load only what you explicitly trust.