GHSA-h9g4-589h-68xv is a high-severity (CVSS 7.1) Missing Authentication vulnerability in openclaw. A fix is available for openclaw — see the affected versions and patch details below.
OpenClaw has an authentication bypass in sandbox browser bridge server
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-h9g4-589h-68xv.
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-h9g4-589h-68xv 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
openclaw could start the sandbox browser bridge server without authentication.
When the sandboxed browser is enabled, openclaw runs a local (loopback) HTTP bridge that exposes browser control endpoints (for example /profiles, /tabs, /tabs/open, /agent/*). Due to missing auth wiring in the sandbox initialization path, that bridge server accepted requests without requiring gateway auth.
Impact
A local attacker (any process on the same machine) could access the bridge server port and:
- enumerate open tabs and retrieve CDP WebSocket URLs
- open/close/navigate tabs
- execute JavaScript in page contexts via CDP
- exfiltrate cookies/session data and page contents from authenticated sessions
This is a localhost-only exposure (CVSS AV:L), but provides full browser-session compromise for sandboxed browser usage.
Affected Versions
- Introduced in:
2026.1.29-beta.1(first npm release that shipped the sandbox browser bridge) - Affected range:
>=2026.1.29-beta.1 <2026.2.14
Patched Versions
2026.2.14
Mitigation
- Upgrade to
2026.2.14(recommended). - Or disable the sandboxed browser (
agents.defaults.sandbox.browser.enabled=false).
Fix Details
- The sandbox browser bridge server now always requires auth and enforces the same gateway browser control auth (token/password) that loopback browser clients already use.
- Additional hardening: bridge server refuses non-loopback binds; local helper servers are bound to loopback.
- Added regression tests (including unit coverage for per-port bridge auth fallback).
Fix commits:
- openclaw/openclaw@4711a943e30bc58016247152ba06472dab09d0b0
- openclaw/openclaw@6dd6bce997c48752134f2d6ed89b27de01ced7e3
- openclaw/openclaw@cd84885a4ac78eadb7bf321aae98db9519426d67
Credits
Thanks to Adnan Jakati (@jackhax) of Praetorian for reporting this issue.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | openclaw | ≥ 2026.1.29-beta.1&&< 2026.2.14 | 2026.2.14npm install openclaw@2026.2.14 |
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 2026.2.14 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-h9g4-589h-68xv 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-h9g4-589h-68xv can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-h9g4-589h-68xv. 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-h9g4-589h-68xv in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-h9g4-589h-68xv across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.