NIST deprecates RSA-2048 from 2030. Find every one of them before attackers do.
📦 npm
Not in CISA KEV

CVE-2026-32023 — openclaw

Fix: openclaw/openclaw@57c9a18

CVE-2026-32023 is a CWE-863 vulnerability in openclaw. A fix is available for openclaw — see the affected versions and patch details below.

OpenClaw < 2026.2.24 - Approval Gating Bypass via Dispatch-Wrapper Depth-Cap Mismatch in system.run

Also known asGHSA-ccg8-46r6-9qgj
Published
Updated
Affected
1 pkg
Patched
1 / 1
Exploits
None indexed
Exploitation data as of Nov 9, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

No confirmed exploitation observed yet

  • CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.

Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2026-32023.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗
0.3%probability of exploitation in next 30 days
Lower Risk+0.01%
Lower risk than most CVEs22th percentile — riskier than 22% of all scored CVEsHighest risk
0.00%0.34%0.68%1.02%0.1%0.3%May 26Sep 26Nov 26

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

Real-World Exposure

1 pkg affected

How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, and reverse-dependency count shows how many other packages break if it stays unpatched.

133other npm packages depend on this — each one inherits the vulnerability until it's patched upstream
openclawnpm
2.9Mdownloads / week

Description

Summary

A wrapper-depth parsing mismatch in system.run allowed nested transparent dispatch wrappers (for example repeated /usr/bin/env) to suppress shell-wrapper detection while still matching allowlist resolution. In security=allowlist + ask=on-miss, this could bypass the expected approval prompt for shell execution.

Severity / Trust Model

OpenClaw’s documented model treats authenticated gateway callers as trusted operators and exec approvals as operator guardrails. This issue is still a real approval-boundary bypass and is triaged as Medium in that model.

Technical Details

  • Dispatch-wrapper unwrapping stopped at MAX_DISPATCH_WRAPPER_DEPTH.
  • Shell-wrapper extraction could return non-wrapper once depth was exhausted.
  • Allowlist resolution could still succeed on partially unwrapped argv beginning with /usr/bin/env.
  • Result: nested wrapper chains could execute /bin/sh -c ... without fresh approval in allowlist + ask=on-miss.

Affected Packages / Versions

  • Package: openclaw (npm)
  • Latest published version at triage time: 2026.2.23
  • Vulnerable versions: <= 2026.2.23
  • Patched versions (planned next release): >= 2026.2.24

Fix Commit(s)

  • 57c9a18180c8b14885bbd95474cbb17ff2d03f0b

Verification

  • Added regression coverage for depth-overflow wrapper chains at resolution and system.run invocation layers.
  • Reproduced previous PoC behavior before fix, then confirmed denial after fix with SYSTEM_RUN_DENIED: approval required.

Release Process Note

patched_versions is pre-set to the planned next release (2026.2.24) so once npm publish is complete, advisory publication can proceed without additional version edits.

OpenClaw thanks @tdjackey for reporting.

Publication Update (2026-02-25)

[email protected] is published on npm and contains the fix commit(s) listed above. This advisory now marks >= 2026.2.24 as patched.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed
EcosystemPackageVulnerable rangeFix
📦npmopenclawall versions2026.2.24npm install openclaw@2026.2.24

Affected Products

1 product · 1 configurations
Application
openclawopenclaw
< 2026.2.24
range

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency
  1. Detect

    Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for openclaw, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

  2. Fix

    Update openclaw to 2026.2.24 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-32023 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

  3. Workarounds

    Stop feeding it untrusted input: reject or quarantine files and payloads from unverified sources until you can upgrade, restrict accepted formats to the ones you actually need, and run the parsing or decoding step in a least-privileged sandbox or short-lived worker so a crash or corrupted read cannot reach the rest of the process.

Frequently Asked Questions

### Summary A wrapper-depth parsing mismatch in `system.run` allowed nested transparent dispatch wrappers (for example repeated `/usr/bin/env`) to suppress shell-wrapper detection while still matching allowlist resolution. In `security=allowlist` + `ask=on-miss`, this could bypass the expected approval prompt for shell execution. ### Severity / Trust Model OpenClaw’s documented model treats authenticated gateway callers as trusted operators and exec approvals as operator guardrails. This issue is still a real approval-boundary bypass and is triaged as **Medium** in that model. ### Technical
O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2026-32023 in your dependencies?

Find it across npm, including transitive dependencies.

CVE-2026-32023: openclaw — Fixed in 2026.2.24