Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-42427

Openclaw ≤ 2026.4.8

Public PoC
Published
28 April 2026
Modified
30 April 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v4 5.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:L/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
EPSS Score 0.0019 9th percentile
Risk Priority 35 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-42427 is a medium-severity Incomplete List of Disallowed Inputs (CWE-184) vulnerability in Openclaw Openclaw. Its CVSS base score is 5.8 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 9th 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 map to CM-7 (Least Functionality) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

OpenClaw before 2026.4.8 contains a remote code execution vulnerability caused by missing environment variable denylist entries for HGRCPATH, CARGO_BUILD_RUSTC_WRAPPER, RUSTC_WRAPPER, and MAKEFLAGS. Attackers can inject malicious build tool environment variables to influence host exec commands and achieve arbitrary code execution.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter Execution
Adversaries may abuse command and script interpreters to execute commands, scripts, or binaries.
Why these techniques?

RCE via malicious env var injection directly enables exploitation of public-facing apps (T1190) and arbitrary command execution (T1059).

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

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Affected Assets

openclaw
openclaw
≤ 2026.4.8

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • SI-10 Information Input Validation
  • CM-7 Least Functionality
  • AC-6 Least Privilege
Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 2 hardening rules · 1 OS baseline
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V3.5.2
  • V4.4.2
  • V16.2.5

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

prevent

Directly requires validation and filtering of untrusted inputs (here environment variables) to block injection of dangerous values such as HGRCPATH or RUSTC_WRAPPER.

prevent

Enforces least functionality by disabling or restricting unnecessary build-tool environment variables and wrapper mechanisms that the vulnerability relies on.

prevent

Limits privileges under which build or exec commands run, reducing the impact of any successful environment-variable injection.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly require complete, positive input validation instead of incomplete denylists.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

detects

Security testing can discover missing input checks, but does not prevent the weakness during development.

prevents

Application security requirements can mandate complete input validation rules, but the control itself does not prescribe how to build those rules.

prevents

Secure architecture principles include robust input validation design, yet the control is broader than this single weakness.

prevents

Secure coding standards directly require exhaustive allow-lists or complete deny-lists for inputs, addressing the root cause of incomplete disallowed-input lists.

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that reduce the attack surface for weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Derived transitively via CVE→CWE→STIG over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only).

Oracle Linux 8 (1 rule)
  • V-248691 OL 8 must require the maximum number of repeating characters be limited to three when passwords are changed. via CWE-184

References