BREW-OPENCLAW-CLI-CVE-20… (GHSA-3XFW-4PMR-4XC5)

Vulnerability from osv_homebrew – Published: 2026-08-13 17:21 – Updated: 2026-09-25 08:57 – Source website
VLAI
Summary
OpenClaw safeBins grep -e File Read Bypass (stdin-only policy bypass)
Details

Summary

OpenClaw tools.exec.safeBins had a stdin-only policy bypass for grep. If pattern input was supplied through -e / --regexp, the validator consumed the pattern as a flag value and still allowed one positional operand. That positional could be a bare filename like .env.

Affected Packages / Versions

  • Package: openclaw (npm)
  • Latest published vulnerable version: 2026.2.19-2
  • Structured vulnerable range: <= 2026.2.19-2
  • Planned fixed range for next release: >= 2026.2.21

Exploit Preconditions

  • tools.exec.safeBins must include grep (this is opt-in; grep is not in the default safe-bin list).
  • An actor must be able to invoke exec tooling under that profile.

Technical Details

src/infra/exec-safe-bin-policy.ts configured grep with maxPositional: 1 and allowed -e / --regexp value flags. Because -e consumes the pattern in flag-value position, the remaining positional budget could be used for a file operand. Example accepted input in vulnerable builds:

grep -e SECRET .env

That violated the intended stdin-only guarantee for safe bins.

Impact

With grep opt-in enabled, callers could read bare-relative files from the working directory (for example .env, credentials.txt) in flows expected to be stdin-only.

Severity Rationale

CVSS v3.1 is set to: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N (5.3, Medium)

AC:H is used because exploitation depends on a non-default configuration (grep must be explicitly added to safe bins) in addition to normal low-privilege tool-invocation capability.

Fix Commit(s)

  • c6ee14d60e4cbd6a82f9b2d74ebeb1e8ee814964

Release Process Note

patched_versions is pre-set to >= 2026.2.21 so this advisory is ready to publish after the 2026.2.21 npm release is live.

OpenClaw thanks @athuljayaram for reporting.

Severity
6.5 (Medium)
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
5.1 (Medium)
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
References
To clipboard 

{
  "affected": [
    {
      "ecosystem_specific": {
        "fix": "bump",
        "range_state": "fixed",
        "upstream_fixed_in": "2026.2.21"
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Homebrew",
        "name": "openclaw-cli",
        "purl": "pkg:brew/openclaw-cli"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0"
            },
            {
              "fixed": "2026.7.1"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "database_specific": {
    "confidence": "high",
    "source": "matched",
    "strategy": "registry",
    "upstream_evidence": [
      {
        "ecosystem": "npm",
        "key": "pkg:npm/openclaw@2026.9.6",
        "name": "openclaw",
        "strategy": "registry",
        "subject_version": "2026.9.6"
      }
    ]
  },
  "details": "### Summary\n\nOpenClaw `tools.exec.safeBins` had a stdin-only policy bypass for `grep`.\nIf pattern input was supplied through `-e` / `--regexp`, the validator consumed the pattern as a flag value and still allowed one positional operand. That positional could be a bare filename like `.env`.\n\n### Affected Packages / Versions\n\n- Package: `openclaw` (npm)\n- Latest published vulnerable version: `2026.2.19-2`\n- Structured vulnerable range: `\u003c= 2026.2.19-2`\n- Planned fixed range for next release: `\u003e= 2026.2.21`\n\n### Exploit Preconditions\n\n- `tools.exec.safeBins` must include `grep` (this is opt-in; `grep` is not in the default safe-bin list).\n- An actor must be able to invoke exec tooling under that profile.\n\n### Technical Details\n\n`src/infra/exec-safe-bin-policy.ts` configured `grep` with `maxPositional: 1` and allowed `-e` / `--regexp` value flags.\nBecause `-e` consumes the pattern in flag-value position, the remaining positional budget could be used for a file operand.\nExample accepted input in vulnerable builds:\n\n```bash\ngrep -e SECRET .env\n```\n\nThat violated the intended stdin-only guarantee for safe bins.\n\n### Impact\n\nWith `grep` opt-in enabled, callers could read bare-relative files from the working directory (for example `.env`, `credentials.txt`) in flows expected to be stdin-only.\n\n### Severity Rationale\n\nCVSS v3.1 is set to:\n`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N` (5.3, Medium)\n\n`AC:H` is used because exploitation depends on a non-default configuration (`grep` must be explicitly added to safe bins) in addition to normal low-privilege tool-invocation capability.\n\n### Fix Commit(s)\n\n- `c6ee14d60e4cbd6a82f9b2d74ebeb1e8ee814964`\n\n### Release Process Note\n\n`patched_versions` is pre-set to `\u003e= 2026.2.21` so this advisory is ready to publish after the `2026.2.21` npm release is live.\n\nOpenClaw thanks @athuljayaram for reporting.",
  "id": "BREW-openclaw-cli-CVE-2026-32022",
  "modified": "2026-09-25T08:57:09Z",
  "published": "2026-08-13T17:21:32Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/security/advisories/GHSA-3xfw-4pmr-4xc5"
    },
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-32022"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/commit/c6ee14d60e4cbd6a82f9b2d74ebeb1e8ee814964"
    },
    {
      "type": "PACKAGE",
      "url": "https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/openclaw-arbitrary-file-read-via-grep-e-flag-policy-bypass"
    }
  ],
  "schema_version": "1.7.3",
  "severity": [
    {
      "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N",
      "type": "CVSS_V3"
    },
    {
      "score": "CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N",
      "type": "CVSS_V4"
    }
  ],
  "summary": "OpenClaw safeBins grep -e File Read Bypass (stdin-only policy bypass)",
  "upstream": [
    "GHSA-3xfw-4pmr-4xc5",
    "CVE-2026-32022"
  ]
}



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