GHSA-vfw7-6rhc-6xxg is a high-severity (CVSS 7.8) CWE-15 vulnerability in openclaw. A fix is available for openclaw — see the affected versions and patch details below.
OpenClaw Has Incomplete Fix for CVE-2026-4039: CLI Backend Environment Variable Injection via Workspace Config
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-vfw7-6rhc-6xxg.
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-vfw7-6rhc-6xxg 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 377,166 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
Incomplete Fix for CVE-2026-4039: CLI Backend Environment Variable Injection via Workspace Config
Current Maintainer Triage
- Status: open
- Normalized severity: high
- Assessment: Real shipped malicious-workspace-config env injection in the CLI backend runner, fixed by sanitizing backend env before spawn and shipped in v2026.3.24, so advisory stays open until published.
Affected Packages / Versions
- Package:
openclaw(npm) - Latest published npm version:
2026.3.31 - Vulnerable version range:
<=2026.3.23-2 - Patched versions:
>= 2026.3.24 - First stable tag containing the fix:
v2026.3.24
Fix Commit(s)
c2fb7f1948c3226732a630256b5179a60664ec24— 2026-03-24T12:58:10-07:00
Release Process Note
- The fix is already present in released version
2026.3.24. - This draft looks ready for final maintainer disposition or publication, not additional code-fix work.
Thanks @YLChen-007 for reporting.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | openclaw | all versions | 2026.3.24npm install openclaw@2026.3.24 |
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 2026.3.24 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-vfw7-6rhc-6xxg 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-vfw7-6rhc-6xxg can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-vfw7-6rhc-6xxg. 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-vfw7-6rhc-6xxg in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-vfw7-6rhc-6xxg across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.