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AI agent vulnerability · OpenClaw

GHSA-9q2p-vc84-2rwm: OpenClaw: system.run allow-always persistence included shell-commented payload tails

mediumCVSS 3.1 5.0

OpenClaw's system.run allowlist analysis did not honor POSIX shell comment semantics when deriving allow-always persistence entries. A caller in security=allowlist mode who received an allow-always decision could submit a shell command whose tail was commented out at runtime, for example by using an unquoted # before a chained payload.

Published Mar 9, 2026

Affected packages

openclaw

Ecosystem
npm
Affected
<= 2026.3.2
Fixed in
2026.3.7
Check
npm ls openclaw

Advisory details

From the GitHub Advisory Database (CC BY 4.0).

OpenClaw's system.run allowlist analysis did not honor POSIX shell comment semantics when deriving allow-always persistence entries.

A caller in security=allowlist mode who received an allow-always decision could submit a shell command whose tail was commented out at runtime, for example by using an unquoted # before a chained payload. The runtime shell would execute only the pre-comment portion, but allowlist persistence could still analyze and store the non-executed tail as a trusted follow-up command.

Latest published npm version: 2026.3.2

Fixed on main on March 7, 2026 in 939b18475d734ed75173f59507e3ebbdfe1992b7 by teaching shell tokenization and chain/pipeline analysis to stop at unquoted shell comments, so allow-always persistence now tracks only commands that the shell can actually execute. Normal real chained commands and quoted # literals continue to work.

Affected Packages / Versions

  • Package: openclaw (npm)
  • Affected versions: <= 2026.3.2
  • Patched version: >= 2026.3.7

Fix Commit(s)

  • 939b18475d734ed75173f59507e3ebbdfe1992b7

Release Process Note

npm 2026.3.7 was published on March 8, 2026. This advisory is fixed in the released package.

Thanks @tdjackey for reporting.

Credited to tdjackey.

References

How this page is made: the data panel comes from the GitHub Advisory Database, CISA’s KEV catalog, the NVD and FIRST EPSS, and updates twice a day. No analysis has been written for this entry yet. Methodology

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