How to Audit Your OpenClaw Security in Under 30 Minutes

You do not need a full security program to catch obvious OpenClaw risk. In most teams, the first 30 minutes reveal the same failure patterns again and again: secrets visible to the agent, sandboxing disabled, logs too verbose, or outbound traffic left wide open.

This walkthrough is designed for a fast OpenClaw security audit. It focuses on ten checks that expose the biggest problems quickly, using commands you can run right now in a terminal. If you pass all ten, you are not "done," but you are in much better shape than teams that never audit anything until after an incident.

The goal is simple: collect facts, mark failures, and create a short remediation list. Do not debate architecture while you are auditing. Just verify what is actually running.

Before you begin, open the repo or host where OpenClaw runs, make sure you can read the active config, and keep a scratch file nearby for results. If you need broader setup guidance after this checklist, start from the VibeLab homepage and work outward from there.

Start by capturing the version, the resolved config, and any environment overrides. This gives you a baseline and prevents accidental guesswork later.

1. Check the installed version.

openclaw --version

2. Export the effective config, not just the checked-in file.

openclaw config export --format yaml > /tmp/openclaw-audit.yaml

3. List environment variables that can override config.

env | grep '^OPENCLAW_' | sort

Why this matters: a lot of teams think they are auditing one config while the running process is actually using another. Save the exported file and the environment dump. Every later check in this guide becomes easier once you have that baseline in hand.

These three checks catch the most damaging misconfigurations first.

1. Check 1: Verify secret redaction is on.

openclaw config get security.redact_secrets

Expected result: true. If it is false, secrets can leak into prompts, logs, or agent traces.

2. Check 2: Verify sandbox mode is enabled.

openclaw config get security.sandbox
openclaw config get security.allowed_paths

Expected result: sandbox enabled and a short allowlist of paths. If the path list is huge, the control is probably meaningless.

3. Check 3: Compare the committed config with the resolved config.

diff -u openclaw.config.yaml /tmp/openclaw-audit.yaml

A surprising diff usually means you have defaults or environment overrides changing the real behavior. That is a common reason teams fail an audit OpenClaw setup review even though the checked-in file looks safe.

Now verify how far the agent can reach and how much damage it can do without a human.

1. Check 4: Inspect outbound network policy.

openclaw config get network.egress_policy
openclaw config get network.allowed_domains

Expected result: allowlist and a specific domain list. If you see allow_all, mark this as a failure.

5. Check 5: Test that a blocked domain is really blocked.

openclaw network test api.github.com
openclaw network test example-bad-host.invalid

The allowed domain should pass and the invalid or blocked target should fail. If both pass, your egress control is not doing what you think.

6. Check 6: Review destructive action approvals and log level.

openclaw config get safety.confirm_before
openclaw config get logging.level

You want non-empty confirmations for risky actions and a production-friendly log level such as info or warn. An empty confirmation list or debug logging is a fast way to fail an OpenClaw security check.

Next, look at credentials and codebase hygiene. Many teams have more exposure in files than in config.

1. Check 7: List active API keys and inspect stale access.

openclaw auth list-keys --format table
openclaw auth list-users --verbose

Look for old keys, over-scoped access, and accounts that should not exist anymore.

8. Check 8: Scan the repo for obvious secrets and unsafe files.

rg -n --hidden --glob '!node_modules' --glob '!.git' '(AKIA[0-9A-Z]{16}|ghp_[A-Za-z0-9]{36}|sk-[A-Za-z0-9]{20,}|postgres://)' .
find . -maxdepth 3 \( -name '.env' -o -name '*.pem' -o -name 'id_rsa' \) -print

This command pair is not a full DLP system, but it is enough to catch the most embarrassing leaks. If secrets exist in the repo or on the same host, assume the agent can eventually reach them unless you have proven otherwise.

9. Check 9: Audit dependency exposure in the active project.

npm audit --omit=dev
npm outdated

Dependency risk is not unique to OpenClaw, but it matters because agent workflows tend to run across the same repo, lockfile, scripts, and CI paths as the rest of your stack.

Finish with the local machine and runtime surface. This is where "temporary" shortcuts become durable risk.

1. Check 10: Verify sensitive files are not world-readable.

stat -c '%a %n' ~/.ssh ~/.ssh/* 2>/dev/null
stat -c '%a %n' .env* 2>/dev/null
stat -c '%a %n' openclaw.config.yaml 2>/dev/null

You are looking for tight permissions on anything that contains credentials or policy. Broad read access is a red flag.

Then do one final session-hygiene check before you close the audit:

history | tail -n 50 | grep -Ei 'token|secret|password|key'
ps aux | grep -i openclaw | grep -v grep

The history check catches operators who pasted secrets into commands. The process check helps you confirm where OpenClaw is running and whether it is attached to an environment you did not expect.

At this point, your 30-minute audit is done. Mark each failure as critical, high, or cleanup, then fix the critical items first. Want the full 50-checkpoint audit? The OpenClaw Security Guide has everything — $29 at vibelab.nanocorp.app.