OpenClaw versions from 2026.2.22 before 2026.4.12 contain an insufficient shell-wrapper detection vulnerability allowing attackers to inject environment variable assignments at the argv level. Attackers can bypass exec preflight handling to manipulate high-risk shell variables like SHELLOPTS and PS4, affecting execution semantics and security controls.

OpenClaw before 2026.4.10 contains an insufficient environment variable denylist vulnerability in its exec environment policy that allows operator-supplied overrides of high-risk interpreter startup variables including VIMINIT, EXINIT, LUA_INIT, and HOSTALIASES. Attackers can exploit this by manipulating these environment variables to influence downstream execution behavior or network connectivity.

OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.2.23 contain an allowlist bypass vulnerability in system.run guardrails that allows authenticated operators to execute unintended commands. When /usr/bin/env is allowlisted, attackers can use env -S to bypass policy analysis and execute shell wrapper payloads at runtime.

In OpenClaw before 2026.2.23, tools.exec.safeBins validation for sort could be bypassed via GNU long-option abbreviations (such as --compress-prog) in allowlist mode, leading to approval-free execution paths that were intended to require approval. Only an exact string such as --compress-program was denied.

OpenClaw before 2026.4.8 contains a role bypass vulnerability in the device.token.rotate function that allows minting tokens for unapproved roles. Attackers can bypass device role-upgrade pairing to preserve or mint roles and scopes that had not undergone intended approval.

OpenClaw versions 2026.4.5 before 2026.4.10 contain a sandbox escape vulnerability allowing sandboxed agents to override exec routing by specifying host=node. Attackers can bypass sandbox boundaries and route execution to remote nodes instead of intended sandbox paths.

OpenClaw before 2026.3.31 contains a remote code execution vulnerability where a device-paired node can bypass the node scope gate authentication mechanism. Attackers with device pairing credentials can execute arbitrary node commands on the host system without proper node pairing validation.

OpenClaw before 2026.3.28 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability in the chat.send endpoint that allows write-scoped gateway callers to persist admin-only verboseLevel session overrides. Attackers can exploit the /verbose parameter to bypass access controls and expose sensitive reasoning or tool output intended to be restricted to administrators.

OpenClaw before 2026.3.28 contains an agentic consent bypass vulnerability allowing LLM agents to silently disable execution approval via config.patch parameter. Remote attackers can exploit this to bypass security controls and execute unauthorized operations without user consent.

OpenClaw before 2026.3.31 contains an incomplete scope-clearing vulnerability in trusted-proxy authentication mode that allows operator.admin privilege escalation. Attackers can exploit this by declaring operator scopes on non-Control-UI clients, allowing self-declared scopes to persist on identity-bearing authentication paths and escalate privileges.

OpenClaw before 2026.3.28 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability allowing authenticated operators with write permissions to access admin-class Telegram configuration and cron persistence settings via the send endpoint. Attackers with operator.write credentials can exploit insufficient access controls to reach sensitive administrative functionality and modify persistence mechanisms.

OpenClaw before 2026.4.8 contains an improper authorization vulnerability where the node.pair.approve method accepts operator.write scope instead of the narrower operator.pairing scope, allowing unprivileged users to approve node pairing. Attackers with operator.write permissions can bypass pairing approval restrictions to gain unauthorized access to exec-capable nodes.

OpenClaw before 2026.3.22 contains an environment variable override handling vulnerability that allows attackers to bypass the shared host environment policy through inconsistent sanitization paths. Attackers can supply blocked or malformed override keys that slip through inconsistent validation to execute arbitrary code with unintended environment variables.

OpenClaw before 2026.3.25 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability in gateway-authenticated plugin HTTP routes that incorrectly mint operator.admin runtime scope regardless of caller-granted scopes. Attackers can exploit this scope boundary bypass to gain elevated privileges and perform unauthorized administrative actions.

OpenClaw before 2026.3.25 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability in the gateway plugin subagent fallback deleteSession function that uses a synthetic operator.admin runtime scope. Attackers can exploit this by triggering session deletion without a request-scoped client to execute privileged operations with unintended administrative scope.

OpenClaw before 2026.3.25 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability allowing non-admin operators to self-request broader scopes during backend reconnect. Attackers can bypass pairing requirements to reconnect as operator.admin, gaining unauthorized administrative privileges.

OpenClaw before 2026.3.22 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability in the device.pair.approve method that allows an operator.pairing approver to approve pending device requests with broader operator scopes than the approver actually holds. Attackers can exploit insufficient scope validation to escalate privileges to operator.admin and achieve remote code execution on the Node infrastructure.

OpenClaw before 2026.3.11 contains an authorization bypass vulnerability in the gateway agent RPC that allows authenticated operators with operator.write permission to override workspace boundaries by supplying attacker-controlled spawnedBy and workspaceDir values. Remote operators can escape the configured workspace boundary and execute arbitrary file and exec operations from any process-accessible directory.

OpenClaw before 2026.3.12 contains an insufficient access control vulnerability in the /config and /debug command handlers that allows command-authorized non-owners to access owner-only surfaces. Attackers with command authorization can read or modify privileged configuration settings restricted to owners by exploiting missing owner-level permission checks.

OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.3.1 contain an authorization mismatch vulnerability that allows authenticated callers with operator.write scope to invoke owner-only tool surfaces including gateway and cron through agent runs in scoped-token deployments. Attackers with write-scope access can perform control-plane actions beyond their intended authorization level by exploiting inconsistent owner-only gating during agent execution.

OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.2.24 contain an approval gating bypass vulnerability in system.run allowlist mode where nested transparent dispatch wrappers can suppress shell-wrapper detection. Attackers can exploit this by chaining multiple dispatch wrappers like /usr/bin/env to execute /bin/sh -c commands without triggering the expected approval prompt in allowlist plus ask=on-miss configurations.

OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.2.25 contain a symlink traversal vulnerability in the agents.files.get and agents.files.set methods that allows reading and writing files outside the agent workspace. Attackers can exploit symlinked allowlisted files to access arbitrary host files within gateway process permissions, potentially enabling code execution through file overwrite attacks.

OpenClaw versions 2026.2.22 prior to 2026.2.25 contain a privilege escalation vulnerability allowing unpaired device identities to bypass operator pairing requirements and self-assign elevated operator scopes including operator.admin. Attackers with valid shared gateway authentication can present a self-signed unpaired device identity to request and obtain higher operator scopes before pairing approval is granted.

OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.2.22 contain an allowlist bypass vulnerability in the safe-bin configuration when sort is manually added to tools.exec.safeBins. Attackers can invoke sort with the --compress-program flag to execute arbitrary external programs without operator approval in allowlist mode with ask=on-miss enabled.

OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.2.14 contain a command hijacking vulnerability that allows attackers to execute unintended binaries by manipulating PATH environment variables through node-host execution or project-local bootstrapping. Attackers with authenticated access to node-host execution surfaces or those running OpenClaw in attacker-controlled directories can place malicious executables in PATH to override allowlisted safe-bin commands and achieve arbitrary command execution.

OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.2.22 contain an allowlist bypass vulnerability in system.run that allows attackers to execute non-allowlisted commands by splitting command substitution using shell line-continuation characters. Attackers can bypass security analysis by injecting $\\ followed by a newline and opening parenthesis inside double quotes, causing the shell to fold the line continuation into executable command substitution that circumvents approval boundaries.

OpenClaw versions 2026.2.23 before 2026.4.12 contain a weakened exec approval binding vulnerability in busybox and toybox applet execution that allows attackers to obscure which applet would actually run. Attackers can exploit opaque multi-call binaries to bypass exec approval mechanisms and weaken risk classification of unsafe applet invocations.

OpenClaw before 2026.4.10 contains a plugin trust bypass vulnerability that allows channel setup catalog lookups to resolve workspace plugin shadows before bundled channel plugins. Attackers can exploit this by crafting malicious workspace plugins that bypass intended trust gates during setup-time plugin loading.

OpenClaw before 2026.3.31 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability allowing paired nodes with role=node to dispatch node.event agent requests with unrestricted gateway-side tool access. Attackers with trusted paired node credentials can escalate privileges by leveraging unrestricted agent.request dispatch to achieve remote code execution on the gateway.

OpenClaw before 2026.3.28 contains an authorization bypass vulnerability in Discord text approval commands that allows non-approvers to resolve pending exec approvals. Attackers can send Discord text commands to bypass the channels.discord.execApprovals.approvers allowlist and approve pending host execution requests.

OpenClaw before 2026.3.22 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability in the Control UI that allows unauthenticated sessions to retain self-declared privileged scopes without device identity verification. Attackers can exploit the device-less allow path in the trusted-proxy mechanism to maintain elevated permissions by declaring arbitrary scopes, bypassing device identity requirements.

OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.2.22 contain an allowlist bypass vulnerability in system.run exec analysis that fails to unwrap env and shell-dispatch wrapper chains. Attackers can route execution through wrapper binaries like env bash to smuggle payloads that satisfy allowlist entries while executing non-allowlisted commands.

OpenClaw before 2026.4.15 contains an authorization bypass vulnerability in Matrix room control-command authorization that trusts DM pairing-store entries. Attackers with DM-paired sender IDs can execute room control commands without being in configured allowlists by posting in bot rooms, potentially enabling privileged OpenClaw behavior.

OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.2.21 fail to filter dangerous process-control environment variables from config env.vars, allowing startup-time code execution. Attackers can inject variables like NODE_OPTIONS or LD_* through configuration to execute arbitrary code in the OpenClaw gateway service runtime context.

OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.2.21 contain an approval-integrity mismatch vulnerability in system.run that allows authenticated operators to execute arbitrary trailing arguments after cmd.exe /c while approval text reflects only a benign command. Attackers can smuggle malicious arguments through cmd.exe /c to achieve local command execution on trusted Windows nodes with mismatched audit logs.

OpenClaw before 2026.3.22 contains an allowlist bypass vulnerability in system.run approvals that fails to unwrap /usr/bin/time wrappers. Attackers can bypass executable binding restrictions by using an unregistered time wrapper to reuse approval state for inner commands.

OpenClaw before 2026.4.8 fails to remove git plumbing environment variables from the execution environment before host exec operations. Attackers can exploit this by setting GIT_DIR and related variables to redirect git operations and compromise repository integrity.

OpenClaw versions 2026.4.7 before 2026.4.10 fail to normalize Discord event cover image parameters in sandbox media processing. Attackers can bypass media normalization to inject host-local media references into channel action paths expecting normalized media.

OpenClaw before 2026.3.28 contains an SSRF guard bypass vulnerability that fails to block four IPv6 special-use ranges. Attackers can exploit this by crafting URLs targeting internal or non-routable IPv6 addresses to bypass SSRF protections.

OpenClaw before 2026.3.31 contains an exec allowlist bypass vulnerability allowing attackers to inherit allowlist trust via shell init-file wrapper invocations. Attackers can exploit shell options like --rcfile, --init-file, and --startup-file to load attacker-chosen initialization files while bypassing exec allowlist matching restrictions.

OpenClaw versions 2026.4.7 before 2026.4.14 contain a privilege escalation vulnerability where heartbeat owner downgrade logic skips webhook wake events carrying untrusted content. Attackers can exploit this by sending untrusted webhook wake events to preserve owner-like execution context when the run should have been downgraded.

OpenClaw versions prior to commit b57b680 contain an approval bypass vulnerability due to inconsistent environment variable normalization between approval and execution paths, allowing attackers to inject attacker-controlled environment variables into execution without approval system validation. Attackers can exploit differing normalization logic to discard non-portable keys during approval processing while accepting them at execution time, bypassing operator review and potentially influencing runtime behavior including execution of attacker-controlled binaries.

OpenClaw versions 2026.3.31 before 2026.4.10 contain a privilege escalation vulnerability where heartbeat owner downgrade detection misses local background async exec completion events. Attackers can exploit this by providing untrusted completion content to leave a run in a more privileged context than intended.

OpenClaw versions prior to commit 8aceaf5 contain a preflight validation bypass vulnerability in shell-bleed protection that allows attackers to execute blocked script content by using piped or complex command forms that the parser fails to recognize. Attackers can craft commands such as piped execution, command substitution, or subshell invocation to bypass the validateScriptFileForShellBleed() validation checks and execute arbitrary script content that would otherwise be blocked.

OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.2.21 contain a stdin-only policy bypass vulnerability in the grep tool within tools.exec.safeBins that allows attackers to read arbitrary files by supplying a pattern via the -e flag parameter. Attackers can include a positional filename operand to bypass file access restrictions and read sensitive files .env from the working directory.

OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.2.22 contain an allowlist parsing mismatch vulnerability in the macOS companion app that allows authenticated operators to bypass exec approval checks. Attackers with operator.write privileges and a paired macOS beta node can craft shell-chain payloads that pass incomplete allowlist validation and execute arbitrary commands on the paired host.

OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.2.19 contain an allowlist bypass vulnerability in the exec safeBins policy that allows attackers to write arbitrary files using short-option payloads. Attackers can bypass argument validation by attaching short options like -o to whitelisted binaries, enabling unauthorized file-write operations that should be denied by safeBins checks.

OpenClaw before 2026.3.31 fails to properly sanitize PIP_INDEX_URL and UV_INDEX_URL environment variables in host execution contexts, allowing attackers to redirect Python package-index traffic. Attackers can exploit this bypass to intercept or manipulate package management operations by injecting malicious index URLs through unsanitized environment variables.

OpenClaw before 2026.3.28 contains an environment variable sanitization vulnerability where GIT_TEMPLATE_DIR and AWS_CONFIG_FILE are not blocked in the host-env blocklist. Attackers can exploit approved exec requests to redirect git or AWS CLI behavior through attacker-controlled configuration files to execute untrusted code or load malicious credentials.

OpenClaw before 2026.4.20 fails to properly reserve the OPENCLAW_ runtime-control environment namespace in workspace dotenv files, allowing attackers to override critical runtime variables. Malicious workspaces can set variables like OPENCLAW_GIT_DIR to manipulate trusted OpenClaw runtime behavior during source-update or installer flows.