GHSA-vfp4-8x56-j7c5 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.8) CWE-184 vulnerability in openclaw. A fix is available for openclaw — see the affected versions and patch details below.
OpenClaw: Exec environment denylist missed high-risk interpreter startup variables
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-vfp4-8x56-j7c5.
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-vfp4-8x56-j7c5 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 378,567 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
Exec environment denylist missed high-risk interpreter startup variables.
Affected Packages / Versions
- Package:
openclaw - Ecosystem: npm
- Affected versions:
< 2026.4.10 - Patched versions:
>= 2026.4.10
Impact
The exec environment policy missed interpreter startup variables such as VIMINIT, EXINIT, LUA_INIT, and HOSTALIASES, allowing operator-supplied environment overrides to influence downstream execution or network behavior.
Technical Details
The fix expands the host environment security policy denylist to cover these and related high-risk environment variables, with regression coverage.
Fix
The issue was fixed in #63277. The first stable tag containing the fix is v2026.4.10, and [email protected] includes the fix.
Fix Commit(s)
2d126fc62343a7b6895351f96e4e1474bc358140- PR: #63277
Release Process Note
Users should upgrade to openclaw 2026.4.10 or newer. The latest npm release, 2026.4.14, already includes the fix.
Credits
Thanks to @feiyang666 of Tencent zhuque Lab (https://github.com/Tencent/AI-Infra-Guard) for reporting this issue.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | openclaw | all versions | 2026.4.10npm install openclaw@2026.4.10 |
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 2026.4.10 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-vfp4-8x56-j7c5 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-vfp4-8x56-j7c5 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-vfp4-8x56-j7c5. 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-vfp4-8x56-j7c5 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-vfp4-8x56-j7c5 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.