GHSA-v3j7-34xh-6g3w is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.7) Missing Authentication vulnerability in openclaw. A fix is available for openclaw — see the affected versions and patch details below.
OpenClaw Loopback CDP probe can leak Gateway token to local listener
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-v3j7-34xh-6g3w.
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-v3j7-34xh-6g3w 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
A local process can capture the OpenClaw Gateway auth token from Chrome CDP probe traffic on loopback.
Details
Affected versions inject x-openclaw-relay-token for loopback CDP URLs, and CDP reachability probes send that header to /json/version.
If an attacker controls the probed loopback port, they can read that token and reuse it as Gateway bearer auth.
Relevant code paths (pre-fix):
src/browser/extension-relay.ts(getChromeExtensionRelayAuthHeaders)src/browser/cdp.helpers.ts(getHeadersWithAuth)src/browser/chrome.ts(fetchChromeVersion)
Affected Packages / Versions
- Package:
openclaw(npm) - Latest published (at triage):
2026.2.21-2 - Vulnerable:
<= 2026.2.21-2 - Patched: >= 2026.2.22
Deployment Model Applicability
This does not change OpenClaw’s documented security model for standard single-owner installs (you own the machine/VPS and trust local processes under that OS account boundary). Risk is for non-standard shared-user/shared-host installs where an untrusted local user/process can race/bind the loopback relay port.
Impact
- Local credential disclosure.
- Follow-on impact depends on local deployment and enabled Gateway capabilities.
Fix Commit(s)
afa22acc4a09fdf32be8a167ae216bee85c30dad
Release Process Note
Patched version is set to >= 2026.2.22 for the published release.
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-v3j7-34xh-6g3w 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-v3j7-34xh-6g3w can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-v3j7-34xh-6g3w. 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-v3j7-34xh-6g3w in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-v3j7-34xh-6g3w across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.