CVE-2026-41387
Published: 28 April 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-41387 is a high-severity Permissive List of Allowed Inputs (CWE-183) vulnerability in Openclaw Openclaw. Its CVSS base score is 8.5 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Compromise Software Dependencies and Development Tools (T1195.001); ranked at the 15.2th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SI-10 (Information Input Validation) and SI-7 (Software, Firmware, and Information Integrity).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2026-41387 is an incomplete host environment variable sanitization vulnerability affecting OpenClaw versions before 2026.3.22. The issue resides in the files host-env-security-policy.json and host-env-security.ts, which fail to properly prevent package-manager environment overrides. Published on 2026-04-28, it carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) and is associated with CWE-183.
A local attacker can exploit the vulnerability through approved exec requests, redirecting package resolution or runtime bootstrap processes to attacker-controlled infrastructure. This enables the execution of trojanized content, potentially compromising confidentiality, integrity, and availability with high impact. Exploitation requires user interaction but no special privileges.
Mitigation guidance is provided in the official OpenClaw security advisory at https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/security/advisories/GHSA-j7p2-qcwm-94v4 and the VulnCheck advisory at https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/openclaw-supply-chain-redirection-via-incomplete-host-environment-sanitization. Upgrading to OpenClaw 2026.3.22 or later addresses the vulnerability.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-26096
Vulnerability details
OpenClaw before 2026.3.22 contains an incomplete host environment variable sanitization vulnerability in host-env-security-policy.json and host-env-security.ts that allows package-manager environment overrides. Attackers can exploit approved exec requests to redirect package resolution or runtime bootstrap to attacker-controlled infrastructure and execute trojanized content.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
The vulnerability enables redirection of package resolution and runtime bootstrap to attacker-controlled infrastructure via incomplete environment variable sanitization, directly facilitating supply chain compromise by allowing execution of trojanized dependencies or software.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Verifies the authenticity of software components to prevent redirection of package resolution to attacker-controlled infrastructure serving trojanized content.
Enforces validation of information inputs such as environment variables to block incomplete sanitization allowing package-manager overrides.
Performs integrity verification of software and firmware to detect and prevent execution of trojanized content introduced via runtime bootstrap redirection.