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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.

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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.

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328,409

Total vulnerabilities in the database

OpenClaw Improperly Neutralizes Line Breaks in systemd Unit Generation Enables Local Command Execution (Linux)

Summary

A command injection vulnerability exists in OpenClaw’s Linux systemd unit generation path. When rendering Environment= entries, attacker-controlled values are not rejected for CR/LF, and systemdEscapeArg() uses an incorrect whitespace-matching regex. This allows newline injection to break out of an Environment= line and inject standalone systemd directives (for example, ExecStartPre=). On service restart, the injected command is executed, resulting in local arbitrary command execution (local RCE) under the gateway service user.

Details

The issue is in src/daemon/systemd-unit.ts:

renderEnvLines(...) builds:
Environment=${systemdEscapeArg(${key}=${value})}
No CR/LF validation is enforced for environment keys/values before writing unit lines.
systemdEscapeArg(...) uses:
/[\\s"\\\\]/
In this regex, \\s is interpreted as a literal backslash + s, not a whitespace character class. As a result, whitespace detection/quoting behavior is incorrect. Because systemd parses unit files line-by-line, a newline inside an environment value can inject an additional directive line. Example rendered output:

Environment=INJECT=ok
ExecStartPre=/bin/touch /tmp/oc15789_rce

At restart time, systemd executes ExecStartPre, enabling command execution.

Relevant code path/components involved in exploitation chain:

src/daemon/systemd-unit.ts
src/commands/daemon-install-helpers.ts
src/config/env-vars.ts
src/config/zod-schema.ts

Trigger conditions:

Attacker can influence config.env.vars (directly or indirectly).
Install/reinstall path is invoked to write/update the unit.
Service restart occurs (systemctl --user restart ...).

PoC

Environment: Linux host with systemd user services enabled.

Configure a malicious environment value in OpenClaw config (config.env.vars), including a newline and injected directive:

Key: INJECT
Value:

ok
ExecStartPre=/bin/touch /tmp/oc15789_rce

Install/reinstall the gateway service (fixed port as requested):

openclaw gateway install --port 15789 --force

Inspect the generated user unit file (default path):

~/.config/systemd/user/openclaw-gateway.service

Verify that an injected standalone line exists:

ExecStartPre=/bin/touch /tmp/oc15789_rce

Reload and restart user service:

systemctl --user daemon-reload

systemctl --user restart openclaw-gateway.service

Confirm command execution side effect:

ls -l /tmp/oc15789_rce

Impact

This is a local command execution vulnerability in OpenClaw’s systemd unit generation during install/reinstall flows.

Type: Command injection via newline/directive injection in unit file generation.
Execution context: Runs with the same privileges as the OpenClaw gateway service user.
Affected users: Linux deployments using systemd user services where an attacker can control config.env.vars and trigger install/reinstall.

Fix Commit(s)

61f646c41fb43cd87ed48f9125b4718a30d38e84

Published: Mar 3, 2026
Updated: Mar 5, 2026
GHSA: GHSA-vffc-f7r7-rx2w
Severity: High
Exploit:

No technical information available.

CWEs:

CWE-77

OWASP TOP 10:

A1 - Injection

Affected Software
References

Software	From	Fixed in
openclaw	-	2026.2.21

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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.