Affected: OpenClaw

OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.2.25 contain a time-of-check-time-of-use vulnerability in approval-bound system.run execution where the cwd parameter is validated at approval time but resolved at execution time. Attackers can retarget a symlinked cwd between approval and execution to bypass command execution restrictions and execute arbitrary commands on node hosts.

Affected: npm: openclaw

### Summary In `openclaw@2026.2.24`, approval-bound `system.run` on node hosts could be influenced by mutable symlink `cwd` targets between approval and execution.

### Details Approval matching on the gateway validated command/argv and binding fields, including `cwd`, as provided text. Node execution later used runtime `cwd` resolution. A symlinked `cwd` could therefore be retargeted after approval and before spawn.

OpenClaw's trust model does not treat one shared gateway as a multi-tenant adversarial boundary, but approval integrity is still a security boundary for operator-reviewed command execution.

### Affected Packages / Versions - Package: `openclaw` (npm) - Affected: `<= 2026.2.24` - Patched: `>= 2026.2.25`

### Fix Commit(s) - `f789f880c934caa8be25b38832f27f90f37903db`

### Remediation The fix adds defense-in-depth hardening for approval-bound node execution: - reject symlink `cwd` paths for approval-bound `system.run` - canonicalize path-like executable argv before spawn - bind CLI approval requests to exact `commandArgv`

### Release Process Note Patched version is pre-set to the release (`2026.2.25`). Advisory published with npm release `2026.2.25`.

OpenClaw thanks @tdjackey for reporting.