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GHSA-pj5x-38rw-6fph
No affected components available
Summary
A command injection vulnerability existed in Windows Scheduled Task script generation for OpenClaw. Environment values were written into gateway.cmd using unquoted set KEY=VALUE, which allowed Windows shell metacharacters in config-provided environment variables to break out of assignment context.
Affected Packages / Versions
- Package:
openclaw(npm) - Affected versions:
<= 2026.2.17 - Patched version:
>= 2026.2.19 - Latest published vulnerable version at review time (2026-02-19):
2026.2.17
Practical Risk Context
For a single-user, localhost-only setup on a personally controlled machine, practical risk is typically low.
This issue becomes materially relevant when configuration or environment values are sourced from less-trusted inputs, for example:
- shared/team config templates,
- copied config snippets,
- setup scripts, automation, or repos that write config,
- any workflow where another party can influence env values before
gateway install/reinstall.
In those scenarios, it provides a reliable config-to-command-execution path when the scheduled task script is generated and run.
Details
On Windows, gateway service installation writes a helper batch script and then registers it via Scheduled Task (schtasks).
Before the fix, env lines were rendered as set KEY=VALUE in src/daemon/schtasks.ts, so values containing metacharacters (for example &, |, ^, %, !) could alter command behavior in cmd.exe.
The fix now renders quoted assignments (set "KEY=VALUE") with explicit escaping for cmd metacharacters, updates parser compatibility for quoted assignments, and adds regression tests for metacharacter handling and round-trip parsing.
Fix Commit(s)
dafe52e8cf1a041d898cfb304a485fa05e5f58fb
OpenClaw thanks @tdjackey for reporting.
The vulnerability requires local access to the device to be exploited. It is easy for an attacker to exploit this vulnerability. An attacker does not need any special privileges or access rights.
Exploitation attempts have been detected. Elevated vigilance and prompt remediation are advised.
The exploit probability is very low. The vulnerability is unlikely to be exploited in the next 30 days.
We did not find any exploit available. Neither in GitHub repositories nor in the Exploit-Database.
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