OpenClaw's non-default autoAllowSkills setting could bypass on-miss exec prompt
Summary
In openclaw versions up to and including 2026.2.22-2, a non-default exec-approval configuration could allow a skill-name collision to bypass an ask=on-miss prompt.
When autoAllowSkills=true, a path-scoped executable such as ./skill-bin could resolve to basename skill-bin, satisfy the skills allowlist segment, and run without prompting for approval.
Affected Packages / Versions
- Package:
npm openclaw - Affected versions:
<= 2026.2.22-2 - Patched versions:
>= 2026.2.23(released)
Configuration Scope (Not Default)
This behavior requires non-default settings and does not affect default installs.
Required conditions:
autoAllowSkills=true(default isfalse)system.runwithsecurity=allowlistask=on-miss
Technical Details
The allowlist evaluator accepted skills satisfaction by bin-name match, so ./skill-bin could match skillBins.has("skill-bin") after resolution.
The fix hardens skill auto-allow matching by requiring:
- a pathless invocation token (no
/or\\), and - a trusted resolved executable path for that skill bin on the machine where skills run.
This preserves normal skill-bin ... behavior while preventing ./<skill-bin> and absolute-path basename collisions from auto-satisfying skills.
Impact
In affected non-default configurations, approval prompts could be skipped for commands that should have required operator confirmation.
Fix Commit(s)
ffd63b7a2c4c6d5aeb4710ef951d5794ad7ad77b(fix(security): trust resolved skill-bin paths in allowlist auto-allow)
OpenClaw thanks @tdjackey for reporting.
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