Is CVE-2026-41294 exploited in the wild?

No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-41294 being exploited in the wild.

How severe is CVE-2026-41294?

Critical severity, with a CVSS score of 9.6, published 21 April 2026.

Is there a fix for CVE-2026-41294?

A patch was published on 2026-03-28: Version 2026.3.28 and later contain the fix Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.

How is CVE-2026-41294 attacked?

It is attacked over the network, in a software library.

Am I affected by CVE-2026-41294?

Check whether you run Openclaw at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.

CVE-2026-41294: OpenClaw has a CWD `.env` environment variable injection which bypasses host-env policy and allows config takeover

CVE-2026-41294 · Severity: critical · CVSS 9.6 · Published 2026-04-21

OpenClaw is a development tool that manages environment configuration and runtime settings. An attacker who can place a malicious .env file in a workspace or repository can override critical security settings and runtime configuration when OpenClaw starts in that directory, potentially leading to unauthorized access, data theft, or system compromise.

Technologies: Openclaw. Vendors: Openclaw.

Quick answers

Is CVE-2026-41294 exploited in the wild?: No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-41294 being exploited in the wild.
How severe is CVE-2026-41294?: Critical severity, with a CVSS score of 9.6, published 21 April 2026.
Which products and versions are affected?: Openclaw <= 2026.3.24.
Is there a fix for CVE-2026-41294?: A patch was published on 2026-03-28: Version 2026.3.28 and later contain the fix Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.
How is CVE-2026-41294 attacked?: It is attacked over the network, in a software library.
Am I affected by CVE-2026-41294?: Check whether you run Openclaw at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.

Technical details

The vulnerability is an untrusted search path issue (CWE-426) in OpenClaw's dotenv loading logic. OpenClaw was loading environment variables from a .env file in the current working directory before applying trusted configuration from the state directory, allowing an attacker to inject malicious environment variables that override security-sensitive settings. The vulnerable components are src/infra/dotenv.ts and src/cli/dotenv.ts. Attack requires user interaction (the user must start OpenClaw in a directory containing the malicious .env file), but no authentication is needed. The fix, released in version 2026.3.28, filters untrusted CWD .env entries before startup (commit 6a79324802).

Affected products

OpenClaw OpenClaw <= 2026.3.24

Identifiers

CVE-2026-41294
GHSA-8rh7-6779-cjqq

Timeline

2026-04-01: disclosed
2026-03-28: patched: Version 2026.3.28 and later contain the fix
2026-03-25: other: Fix committed (commit 6a793248024dca7685f63bcceb64a0096fd1586d)

References

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