GHSA-3cvx-236h-m9fj is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) OS Command Injection vulnerability in openclaw. A fix is available for openclaw — see the affected versions and patch details below.
OpenClaw has an opt-in insecure Control UI auth over plaintext HTTP could allow privileged access
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 GHSA-3cvx-236h-m9fj.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-3cvx-236h-m9fj plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 378,567 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
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.
openclawnpmDescription
Description
In affected releases, when an operator explicitly enabled gateway.controlUi.allowInsecureAuth: true and exposed the gateway over plaintext HTTP, Control UI authentication could permit privileged operator access without the intended device identity + pairing guarantees.
This required an insecure deployment choice and credential exposure risk (for example, plaintext transit or prior token leak). It was fixed on main in commit 40a292619e1f2be3a3b1db663d7494c9c2dc0abf (PR #20684).
Affected Packages / Versions
- Package:
openclaw(npm) - Affected published versions:
<= 2026.2.19-2 - Planned patched version:
2026.2.21
Impact
In these explicitly insecure deployments, an attacker with leaked/intercepted credentials could obtain high-privilege Control UI access.
Fix Commit(s)
40a292619e1f2be3a3b1db663d7494c9c2dc0abf(merged 2026-02-20)
OpenClaw thanks @Vasco0x4 for reporting.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | openclaw | all versions | 2026.2.21npm install openclaw@2026.2.21 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
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.
Fix
Update openclaw to 2026.2.21 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-3cvx-236h-m9fj is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like GHSA-3cvx-236h-m9fj can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-3cvx-236h-m9fj. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-3cvx-236h-m9fj in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-3cvx-236h-m9fj across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.