GHSA-4w7m-58cg-cmff — openclaw
HIGHGHSA-4w7m-58cg-cmff is a high-severity (CVSS 8.8) CWE-863 vulnerability in openclaw. A fix is available for openclaw — see the affected versions and patch details below.
OpenClaw: Leaf subagents could steer sibling sessions across sandbox boundaries
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
- 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-4w7m-58cg-cmff.
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-4w7m-58cg-cmff 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 377,333 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
In affected versions of openclaw, sandboxed leaf subagents could still access the subagents control surface and resolve against the parent requester scope instead of remaining confined to their own session tree.
Impact
A low-privilege sandboxed leaf worker could steer or kill a sibling run owned by the same requester and cause that sibling to execute with its own broader tool policy. This is a sandbox and session-scope boundary bypass.
Affected Packages and Versions
- Package:
openclaw(npm) - Affected versions:
<= 2026.3.8 - Fixed in:
2026.3.11
Technical Details
Leaf subagents retained the subagents tool, and subagent control requests were authorized against the parent requester scope rather than the caller's own spawned descendants. The control path prevented only self-targeting, not cross-sibling steering.
Fix
OpenClaw now removes subagents control access from leaf subagents by default, scopes subagent control to the caller's own descendants, and rejects steer and kill requests that target runs outside that descendant tree. The fix shipped in [email protected].
Workarounds
Upgrade to 2026.3.11 or later.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | openclaw | all versions | 2026.3.11npm install openclaw@2026.3.11 |
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 2026.3.11 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-4w7m-58cg-cmff 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-4w7m-58cg-cmff can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-4w7m-58cg-cmff. 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-4w7m-58cg-cmff in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-4w7m-58cg-cmff across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.