OpenClaw: BlueBubbles (optional plugin) pairing/allowlist mismatch when allowFrom is empty
Summary
BlueBubbles is an optional OpenClaw channel plugin. A configuration-sensitive access-control mismatch allowed DM senders to be treated as authorized when dmPolicy was pairing or allowlist and allowFrom was empty/unset.
Severity Rationale (Medium)
Severity is set to medium because:
- this affects an optional plugin, not core messaging surfaces;
- many deployments use owner-controlled/private BlueBubbles identities with limited external reachability;
- practical exploitability depends on an untrusted sender being able to reach that specific BlueBubbles account identifier.
In typical personal/self-hosted BlueBubbles setups, the mapped Apple identity is single-owner and not broadly reachable, so this is usually low practical risk.
Risk is higher in deployments where the identifier is publicly reachable and/or agent tool permissions are broad.
Technical Details
1. BlueBubbles DM policy defaults to pairing (dmPolicy ?? "pairing").
2. Effective allowlist can be empty (effectiveAllowFrom).
3. DM/reaction authorization called isAllowedBlueBubblesSender(...).
4. That delegated to shared isAllowedParsedChatSender(...), which previously returned true for empty allowlists.
5. Result: unknown senders could bypass intended pairing/allowlist gating when allowFrom was empty.
Affected Packages / Versions
- Package:
openclaw (npm) - Vulnerable versions:
<= 2026.2.21-2 - Planned fixed version:
2026.2.22
Fix
The shared parsed-chat allowlist helper now fails closed on empty allowlists, restoring expected BlueBubbles DM gating behavior. BlueBubbles inbound gating was also refactored to use one shared DM/group decision helper for both message and reaction paths to reduce future drift.
Fix Commit(s)
9632b9bcf032c5f2280c3103961fde912ab1f9202ba6de7eaad812e5e8603018e14e54e96bdd57dd51c0893673de8e5cea64e64351dbfa4680ba0dec4540790cb62412676f7b61cfc6e47443f84a251e
OpenClaw thanks @tdjackey for reporting.
