diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index b31c9d8dbfe..10960c8984e 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -325,6 +325,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - Codex/app-server: stabilize transcript mirror dedupe across re-mirrored turns so reordered snapshots no longer drop reasoning entries or duplicate the assistant reply. Refs #77012. (#77046) Thanks @openperf.
 - Agents/auth-profiles: do not record request-shape (`format`) rejections as auth-profile health failures, so a single per-session transcript-shape error (such as a prefill-strict 400 "conversation must end with a user message") no longer triggers a profile-wide cooldown that blocks every other healthy session sharing the same auth profile. Refs #77228. (#77280) Thanks @openperf.
 - CLI/update: stop dev-channel source updates immediately when `git fetch` fails, so tag conflicts cannot keep preflight, rebase, or build steps running against stale refs while the Gateway is still on the old runtime. (#77845) Thanks @obviyus.
+- Config/recovery: chmod restored `openclaw.json` back to owner-only (`0600`) after suspicious-read backup recovery on POSIX hosts, so a previously world-readable config mode cannot persist into a freshly restored credential-bearing config. (#77488) Thanks @drobison00.
 
 ## 2026.5.3-1
 
diff --git a/src/config/io.observe-recovery.test.ts b/src/config/io.observe-recovery.test.ts
index a7f188082b7..88e8564a932 100644
--- a/src/config/io.observe-recovery.test.ts
+++ b/src/config/io.observe-recovery.test.ts
@@ -275,6 +275,22 @@ describe("config observe recovery", () => {
     });
   });
 
+  it("hardens async backup restores to owner-only config permissions", async () => {
+    if (process.platform === "win32") {
+      return;
+    }
+    await withSuiteHome(async (home) => {
+      const { deps, configPath } = makeDeps(home);
+      await seedConfigBackup(configPath, recoverableTelegramConfig);
+      await writeClobberedUpdateChannel(configPath);
+      await fsp.chmod(configPath, 0o644);
+
+      await recoverClobberedUpdateChannel({ deps, configPath });
+
+      expect((await fsp.stat(configPath)).mode & 0o777).toBe(0o600);
+    });
+  });
+
   it("auto-restores after a large size drop against last-good config", async () => {
     await withSuiteHome(async (home) => {
       const { deps, configPath, auditPath } = makeDeps(home);
@@ -456,6 +472,22 @@ describe("config observe recovery", () => {
     });
   });
 
+  it("hardens sync backup restores to owner-only config permissions", async () => {
+    if (process.platform === "win32") {
+      return;
+    }
+    await withSuiteHome(async (home) => {
+      const { deps, configPath } = makeDeps(home);
+      await seedConfigBackup(configPath, recoverableTelegramConfig);
+      await writeClobberedUpdateChannel(configPath);
+      await fsp.chmod(configPath, 0o644);
+
+      recoverClobberedUpdateChannelSync({ deps, configPath });
+
+      expect((await fsp.stat(configPath)).mode & 0o777).toBe(0o600);
+    });
+  });
+
   it("logs async health-state write failures", async () => {
     await withSuiteHome(async (home) => {
       const { deps, configPath, warn } = makeDeps(home);
diff --git a/src/config/io.observe-recovery.ts b/src/config/io.observe-recovery.ts
index a9f676139bd..db5b7edf6be 100644
--- a/src/config/io.observe-recovery.ts
+++ b/src/config/io.observe-recovery.ts
@@ -640,6 +640,7 @@ export async function maybeRecoverSuspiciousConfigRead(params: {
   let restoreError: unknown;
   try {
     await params.deps.fs.promises.copyFile(backupPath, params.configPath);
+    await params.deps.fs.promises.chmod?.(params.configPath, 0o600).catch(() => {});
     restoredFromBackup = true;
   } catch (error) {
     restoreError = error;
@@ -747,6 +748,9 @@ export function maybeRecoverSuspiciousConfigReadSync(params: {
   let restoreError: unknown;
   try {
     params.deps.fs.copyFileSync(backupPath, params.configPath);
+    try {
+      params.deps.fs.chmodSync?.(params.configPath, 0o600);
+    } catch {}
     restoredFromBackup = true;
   } catch (error) {
     restoreError = error;