Junglewise Threat Intelligence

CVE-2026-16122: nextlevelbuilder GoClaw authorization bypass in exec approval flow

CVE-2026-16122 · Severity: medium · CVSS 4.3 · Published 2026-07-18

Technologies: Nextlevelbuilder GoClaw. Vendors: Nextlevelbuilder.

Executive brief

GoClaw, a platform for deploying AI agent teams, contains a security flaw in how it handles command approvals. When an administrator approves a specific command to run 'always,' the system only remembers the name of the file and not its full location. This allows a user with existing access to trick the system into running a different, potentially malicious file with the same name without needing a second approval, leading to unauthorized command execution on the host server.

Technical details

An incorrect authorization vulnerability exists in GoClaw's 'exec' approval flow within `internal/tools/exec_approval.go`. The `extractBin` function uses `filepath.Base` to normalize command paths, storing 'allow-always' decisions based solely on the executable's basename rather than its absolute path or identity. An authenticated attacker with operator-level access can seed the `alwaysAllow` cache by getting a benign pathless command (e.g., `canary-bin`) approved, then execute a malicious binary with the same name from a different directory (e.g., `./canary-bin`). This bypasses the `tools.execApproval.security=allowlist` policy, leading to unauthorized host command execution.

Affected products

  • nextlevelbuilder GoClaw up to 3.13.2

Timeline

  • 2026-07-18: disclosed: Vulnerability details and PoC published via GitHub and VulDB
  • 2026-07-18: advisory

References

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