GHSA-49cg-279w-m73x is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) CWE-183 vulnerability in openclaw. A fix is available for openclaw — see the affected versions and patch details below.
OpenClaw: Empty approver lists could grant explicit approval authorization
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-49cg-279w-m73x.
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-49cg-279w-m73x 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
Summary
Empty approver lists could grant explicit approval authorization.
Affected Packages / Versions
- Package:
openclaw - Ecosystem: npm
- Affected versions:
< 2026.4.12 - Patched versions:
>= 2026.4.12
Impact
For helper-backed channels, an empty resolved approver list could be interpreted as explicit approval authorization, allowing a sender outside the normal channel authorization gate to resolve pending approvals if they knew an approval id.
Technical Details
The fix prevents empty approver lists from granting explicit approval authorization and adds regression coverage for unauthorized senders.
Fix
The issue was fixed in #65714. The first stable tag containing the fix is v2026.4.12, and [email protected] includes the fix.
Fix Commit(s)
0a105c0900de701d2ee9f1abc96b017afbd0afdd- PR: #65714
Release Process Note
Users should upgrade to openclaw 2026.4.12 or newer. The latest npm release, 2026.4.14, already includes the fix.
Credits
Thanks to @anshumanbh for reporting this issue.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | openclaw | all versions | 2026.4.12npm install openclaw@2026.4.12 |
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 2026.4.12 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-49cg-279w-m73x 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-49cg-279w-m73x can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-49cg-279w-m73x. 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-49cg-279w-m73x in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-49cg-279w-m73x across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.