GHSA-q8ff-7ffm-m3r9 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6) CWE-672 vulnerability in openclaw. A fix is available for openclaw — see the affected versions and patch details below.
OpenClaw's Webhooks SecretRef route secret remains valid after rotation/reload
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-q8ff-7ffm-m3r9.
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-q8ff-7ffm-m3r9 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
OpenClaw webhooks allowed route secrets to be backed by SecretRef values, but cached the resolved secret for a route. After an operator rotated the underlying secret and ran openclaw secrets reload, the previous resolved webhook secret could remain valid until the plugin or gateway restarted.
Impact
An attacker who already had a previously valid webhook route secret could continue authenticating webhook requests after the operator rotated the secret and reloaded secrets. This weakened credential rotation for webhook routes and could allow continued invocation of the configured webhook task flow until restart.
Affected Packages / Versions
- Package:
openclawon npm - Affected: versions before
2026.4.23 - Fixed:
2026.4.23 - Latest stable verified fixed:
[email protected], tagv2026.4.23
Fix
Webhook route authentication now resolves SecretRef-backed route secrets on each request. A rotated secret becomes effective after openclaw secrets reload without requiring a gateway or plugin restart, and the old secret is rejected.
Fix Commit(s)
36c4a372a0ad5dca8bfc0d93f7aab9c2f2de66fa(fix(webhooks): reload route secrets per request)
Severity
Severity remains medium. The attack requires possession of a previously valid route secret, but the stale credential can continue to authorize webhook actions after rotation.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | openclaw | all versions | 2026.4.23npm install openclaw@2026.4.23 |
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 2026.4.23 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-q8ff-7ffm-m3r9 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-q8ff-7ffm-m3r9 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-q8ff-7ffm-m3r9. 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-q8ff-7ffm-m3r9 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-q8ff-7ffm-m3r9 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.