GHSA-5xfq-5mr7-426q is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.5) Path Traversal vulnerability in openclaw. A fix is available for openclaw — see the affected versions and patch details below.
OpenClaw's unsanitized session ID enables path traversal in transcript file operations
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-5xfq-5mr7-426q.
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-5xfq-5mr7-426q 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 379,145 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
OpenClaw versions <= 2026.2.9 construct transcript file paths using an unsanitized sessionId and also accept sessionFile paths without enforcing that they stay within the agent sessions directory.
A crafted sessionId and/or sessionFile (example: ../../etc/passwd) can cause path traversal when the gateway performs transcript file read/write operations.
Preconditions: an attacker must be able to authenticate to the gateway (gateway token/password). By default the gateway binds to loopback (local-only); configurations that expose the gateway widen the attack surface.
Affected Packages / Versions
- Package:
openclaw(npm) - Affected:
<= 2026.2.9 - Fixed:
>= 2026.2.12
Fix
Fixed by validating session IDs (rejecting path separators / traversal sequences) and enforcing sessions-directory containment for session transcript file operations.
Fix Commit(s)
4199f9889f0c307b77096a229b9e085b8d856c26
Additional Hardening
cab0abf52ac91e12ea7a0cf04fff315cf0c94d64
Mitigation
Upgrade to openclaw >= 2026.2.12.
Thanks @akhmittra for reporting.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | openclaw | all versions | 2026.2.12npm install openclaw@2026.2.12 |
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 2026.2.12 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-5xfq-5mr7-426q 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-5xfq-5mr7-426q can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-5xfq-5mr7-426q. 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-5xfq-5mr7-426q in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-5xfq-5mr7-426q across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.