GHSA-6j27-pc5c-m8w8 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.4) OS Command Injection vulnerability in openclaw. A fix is available for openclaw — see the affected versions and patch details below.
OpenClaw's allow-always wrapper persistence could bypass future approvals and enable command execution
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-6j27-pc5c-m8w8.
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-6j27-pc5c-m8w8 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 377,636 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 openclaw npm releases up to and including 2026.2.21-2, approving wrapped system.run commands with allow-always in security=allowlist mode could persist wrapper-level allowlist entries and enable later approval-bypass execution of different inner payloads.
Affected Packages / Versions
- Package:
openclaw(npm) - Affected versions:
<= 2026.2.21-2 - Planned patched version:
2026.2.22
Details
allow-always persistence was based on wrapper-level resolution instead of stable inner executable intent. A benign approved wrapper invocation could therefore broaden future trust boundaries.
Affected paths included gateway and node-host execution approval persistence flows. The fix now persists inner executable paths for known dispatch-wrapper chains (env, nice, nohup, stdbuf, timeout) and fails closed when safe unwrapping cannot be derived.
Impact
Authorization boundary bypass in allowlist mode, potentially leading to approval-free command execution (RCE class) on subsequent wrapped invocations.
Mitigation
Upgrade to 2026.2.22 (planned next release) or run with stricter exec policy (ask=always / security=deny) until upgraded.
Fix Commit(s)
24c954d972400f508814532dea0e4dcb38418bb0
Release Process Note
patched_versions is pre-set to 2026.2.22 so this advisory is publish-ready; publish after the npm release is live.
OpenClaw thanks @tdjackey for reporting.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | openclaw | all versions | 2026.2.22npm install openclaw@2026.2.22 |
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 2026.2.22 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-6j27-pc5c-m8w8 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-6j27-pc5c-m8w8 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-6j27-pc5c-m8w8. 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-6j27-pc5c-m8w8 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-6j27-pc5c-m8w8 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.