Junglewise Threat Intelligence

CVE-2026-32017: OpenClaw exec allowlist short-option bypass arbitrary file write

CVE-2026-32017 · Severity: low · CVSS 3.1 · Published 2026-03-03

Technologies: Openclaw. Vendors: Openclaw.

Executive brief

OpenClaw is a library that executes system commands with security policies to restrict which binaries can run and what arguments they accept. When configured with its allowlist and safeBins security settings, an attacker could craft command arguments using short options (like `sort -o/tmp/poc`) to bypass the argument validation and write arbitrary files to the system. This could allow unauthorized file creation or modification on systems using this library.

Technical details

This vulnerability is an incomplete input validation issue (CWE-184) in OpenClaw's exec allowlist enforcement mechanism. The safeBins policy is designed to restrict which command-line options are permitted when executing system binaries, but it failed to properly filter short-form option flags that could perform file-write operations. An attacker with the ability to supply command arguments could use single-character flags like `-o` (output redirection in sort) or similar patterns in other binaries to write files while bypassing the allowlist checks. The attack requires that tools.exec.security is configured to 'allowlist' mode and the affected binary is in the safeBins list. The fix involved implementing deterministic argv-only validation and explicitly blocking file-oriented flags across supported utilities (sort -o/--output, grep recursion flags, jq -f, etc.), and removing overly permissive binaries (sort, grep) from default safeBins lists.

Affected products

  • OpenClaw openclaw <= 2026.2.17

Timeline

  • 2026-03-03: disclosed: Advisory published on GitHub and OSV
  • 2026-02-19: patched: Security patches committed; fixed in version 2026.2.19

References

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