Vulnerability · Published Mar 18, 2026 · Assigned by VulnCheck

CVE-2026-22177OpenClaw < 2026.2.21 - Environment Variable Injection via Config env.vars

Medium 6.1

In plain English

A medium-severity security flaw in OpenClaw from OpenClaw. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.4% (higher than 34% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS 3.1)6.1Medium

Exploit odds (30 days)0.4%top 66.3% of all CVEs

Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none

Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

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.

Affected packages & fixed versions

Ecosystem	Package	Fixed in	Advisory
npm	openclaw	2026.2.21	GHSA-8fmp-37rc-p5g7

Affected products (as reported)

Vendor	Product	Versions
OpenClaw	OpenClaw	0 – before 2026.2.21

Weakness: CWE-15 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L

References

GitHub Security Advisory (GHSA-8fmp-37rc-p5g7) vendor-advisory
Patch Commit vendor-advisory
VulnCheck Advisory: OpenClaw < 2026.2.21 - Environment Variable Injection via Config env.vars patch
https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/openclaw-environment-variable-injection-via-config-env-vars third-party-advisory