Vulnerability · Published Mar 18, 2026 · Assigned by VulnCheck

CVE-2026-22217OpenClaw 2026.2.22 < 2026.2.23 - Arbitrary Binary Execution via $SHELL Environment Variable Trusted Prefix Fallback

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 0.1% (higher than 3% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS 3.1)6.1Medium

Exploit odds (30 days)0.1%top 97.2% of all CVEs

Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none

Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

OpenClaw version 2026.2.22 prior to 2026.2.23 contains an arbitrary code execution vulnerability in shell-env that allows attackers to execute attacker-controlled binaries by exploiting trusted-prefix fallback logic for the $SHELL variable. An attacker can influence the $SHELL environment variable on systems with writable trusted-prefix directories such as /opt/homebrew/bin to execute arbitrary binaries in the OpenClaw process context.

Affected packages & fixed versions

Ecosystem	Package	Fixed in	Advisory
npm	openclaw	2026.2.23	GHSA-p4wh-cr8m-gm6c

Affected products (as reported)

Vendor	Product	Versions
OpenClaw	OpenClaw	2026.2.22 – before 2026.2.23

Weakness: CWE-829 · 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-p4wh-cr8m-gm6c) vendor-advisory
Patch Commit patch
VulnCheck Advisory: OpenClaw 2026.2.22 < 2026.2.23 - Arbitrary Binary Execution via $SHELL Environment Variable Trusted Prefix Fallback third-party-advisory