What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-42435: OpenClaw 2026.2.22 < 2026.4.12 - Shell-Wrapper Detection Bypass via Environment Variable Assignment Injection

• Severity: high (CVSS 8.8 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2026-05-05 · updated 2026-06-17
• Weakness: CWE-184

Description

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.

Affected products

• OpenClaw: from 2026.2.22 before 2026.4.12 — fixed in 2026.4.12

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: OpenClaw 2026.4.12. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/commit/8f8492d172f4c5b4fd7dd9a47855ed620c8770ab
• https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/security/advisories/GHSA-j6c7-3h5x-99g9
• https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/openclaw-shell-wrapper-detection-bypass-via-environment-variable-assignment-injection

Get alerted when CVE-2026-42435 or the next vulnerability affects your stack