GHSA-qj77-c3c8-9c3q is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) OS Command Injection vulnerability in openclaw. A fix is available for openclaw — see the affected versions and patch details below.
OpenClaw's Windows cmd.exe parsing may bypass exec allowlist/approval gating
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- 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-qj77-c3c8-9c3q.
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-qj77-c3c8-9c3q 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
Summary
On Windows nodes, exec requests were executed via cmd.exe /d /s /c <rawCommand>. In allowlist/approval-gated mode, the allowlist analysis did not model Windows cmd.exe parsing and metacharacter behavior. A crafted command string could cause cmd.exe to interpret additional operations (for example command chaining via &, or expansion via %...% / !...!) beyond what was allowlisted/approved.
Affected Packages / Versions
- Package:
openclaw(npm) - Affected:
<= 2026.2.1 - Patched:
>= 2026.2.2 - Latest (npm) as of 2026-02-14:
2026.2.13
Details
- Default installs: Not affected unless you opt into exec allowlist/approval gating on Windows nodes.
- Windows execution uses
cmd.exeviasrc/infra/node-shell.ts. - The fix hardens Windows allowlist enforcement by:
- Passing the platform into allowlist analysis and rejecting Windows shell metacharacters.
- Treating
cmd.exeinvocation as not allowlist-safe on Windows. - Avoiding
cmd.exeentirely in allowlist mode by executing the parsed argv directly when possible.
Fix Commit(s)
a7f4a53ce80c98ba1452eb90802d447fca9bf3d6
Thanks @simecek for reporting.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | openclaw | all versions | 2026.2.2npm install openclaw@2026.2.2 |
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 2026.2.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-qj77-c3c8-9c3q 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-qj77-c3c8-9c3q can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-qj77-c3c8-9c3q. 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-qj77-c3c8-9c3q in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-qj77-c3c8-9c3q across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.