How should we interpret CVSS severity scores?

CVSS estimates technical severity, but it does not automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, asset criticality, known exploitation, and whether compensating controls exist. A Medium CVSS on an exposed production system can be more urgent than a Critical on an isolated non-production host.

Vulnerability Database

Q: What is a Vulnerability (CVE) and why does it matter?

A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.

Q: What's the difference between a vulnerability, an exploit, and a zero-day?

A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. Risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.

Q: Why do vulnerabilities keep reappearing in our environment?

Recurring findings usually come from incomplete asset discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host.

Q: How do we prioritize remediation without burning out the team?

Use a repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress so remediation is steady, not reactive.

Q: How can SynScan help reduce vulnerability risk over time?

SynScan combines attack surface monitoring and continuous security auditing to keep your inventory current, flag high-impact vulnerabilities early, and help you turn raw findings into a practical remediation plan.

328,409

Total vulnerabilities in the database

OpenClaw: Command hijacking via unsafe PATH handling (bootstrapping + node-host PATH overrides)

Command hijacking via PATH handling

Discovered: 2026-02-04 Reporter: @akhmittra

Summary

OpenClaw previously accepted untrusted PATH sources in limited situations. In affected versions, this could cause OpenClaw to resolve and execute an unintended binary ("command hijacking") when running host commands.

This issue primarily matters when OpenClaw is relying on allowlist/safe-bin protections and expects PATH to be trustworthy.

Affected Packages / Versions

Package: openclaw (npm)
Affected: < 2026.2.14
Patched: >= 2026.2.14 (planned next release)

What Is Required To Trigger This

A) Node Host PATH override (remote command hijack)

An attacker needs all of the following:

Authenticated/authorized access to an execution surface that can invoke node-host execution (for example, a compromised gateway or a caller that can issue system.run).
A node host connected and exposing system.run.
A configuration where allowlist/safe-bins are expected to restrict execution (this is not meaningful if full arbitrary exec is already allowed).
The ability to pass request-scoped environment overrides (specifically PATH) into system.run.
A way to place an attacker-controlled executable earlier in PATH (for example, a writable directory on the node host), with a name that matches an allowlisted/safe-bin command that OpenClaw will run.

Notes:

OpenClaw deployments commonly require a gateway token/password (or equivalent transport authentication). This should not be treated as unauthenticated Internet RCE.
This scenario typically depends on non-standard / misconfigured deployments (for example, granting untrusted parties access to invoke node-host execution or otherwise exposing a privileged execution surface beyond the intended trust boundary).

B) Project-local PATH bootstrapping (local command hijack)

An attacker needs all of the following:

The victim runs OpenClaw from within an attacker-controlled working directory (for example, cloning and running inside a malicious repository).
That directory contains a node_modules/.bin/openclaw and additional attacker-controlled executables in the same directory.
OpenClaw subsequently executes a command by name (resolved via PATH) that matches one of those attacker-controlled executables.

Fix

Project-local node_modules/.bin PATH bootstrapping is now disabled by default. If explicitly enabled, it is append-only (never prepended) via OPENCLAW_ALLOW_PROJECT_LOCAL_BIN=1.
Node Host now ignores request-scoped PATH overrides.

Fix Commit(s)

013e8f6b3be3333a229a066eef26a45fec47ffcc

Thanks @akhmittra for reporting.

Published: Feb 18, 2026
Updated: Mar 1, 2026
GHSA: GHSA-jqpq-mgvm-f9r6
Severity: High
Exploit:

CVSS v3:

Severity: Unknown
Score:
AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CWEs:

OWASP TOP 10:

A1 - Injection

Affected Software
References

Software	From	Fixed in
openclaw	-	2026.2.14

Deep Security Visibility Without the Complexity

SynScan provides clear, real-time security insights so you can monitor your attack surface, spot risks early, and act fast—without extra complexity.

No setup fees
5-min deployment
Cancel anytime

Book a Demo

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Vulnerability (CVE) and why does it matter?

A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.

CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) estimates technical severity, but it doesn't automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, affected asset criticality, known exploitation (proof-of-concept or in-the-wild), and whether compensating controls exist. A "Medium" CVSS on an exposed, production system can be more urgent than a "Critical" on an isolated, non-production host.

A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. In practice, risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.

Recurring findings usually come from incomplete Asset Discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host. Unknown or unmanaged assets (often called Shadow IT) are a common reason the same issues resurface.

Use a simple, repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress using consistent metrics so remediation is steady, not reactive.

SynScan combines attack surface monitoring and continuous security auditing to keep your inventory current, flag high-impact vulnerabilities early, and help you turn raw findings into a practical remediation plan.