OpenClaw is a personal AI assistant. Prior to OpenClaw version 2026.2.14, the Gateway tool accepted a tool-supplied gatewayUrl without sufficient restrictions, which could cause the OpenClaw host to attempt outbound WebSocket connections to user-specified targets. This requires the ability to invoke tools that accept gatewayUrl overrides (directly or indirectly).

In typical setups this is limited to authenticated operators, trusted automation, or environments where tool calls are exposed to non-operators. In other words, this is not a drive-by issue for arbitrary internet users unless a deployment explicitly allows untrusted users to trigger these tool calls. Some tool call paths allowed gatewayUrl overrides to flow into the Gateway WebSocket client without validation or allowlisting.

This meant the host could be instructed to attempt connections to non-gateway endpoints (for example, localhost services, private network addresses, or cloud metadata IPs). In the common case, this results in an outbound connection attempt from the OpenClaw host (and corresponding errors/timeouts). In environments where the tool caller can observe the results, this can also be used for limited network reachability probing.

If the target speaks WebSocket and is reachable, further interaction may be possible. Starting in version 2026.2.14, tool-supplied gatewayUrl overrides are restricted to loopback (on the configured gateway port) or the configured gateway.remote.url. Disallowed protocols, credentials, query/hash, and non-root paths are rejected.