OpenClaw affected by iMessage remote attachment SCP hardening (strict host-key checks and remoteHost validation)

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Description

Summary

Remote iMessage attachment fetches used SCP with trust-on-first-use host-key behavior and accepted unvalidated remote host tokens.

Before the fix:
- SCP used StrictHostKeyChecking=accept-new in the remote attachment path.
- channels.imessage.remoteHost was not validated as a strict SSH host token.

Impact

In remote iMessage deployments that use SCP attachment fetching, a first-connection MITM/DNS-poisoning scenario could cause the wrong host key to be trusted. Unsafe remote host token values could also alter SCP argument semantics.

Affected Packages / Versions

  • Package: openclaw (npm)
  • Latest published npm version currently affected: 2026.2.17
  • Vulnerable range (structured field): <= 2026.2.17
  • Patched version (pre-set for next release): >= 2026.2.19

Fix

The fix hardens remote attachment SSH/SCP handling by:
- requiring StrictHostKeyChecking=yes for SCP and SSH tunnel paths,
- adding strict remoteHost normalization/validation,
- adding -- argument barrier for SCP remote source parsing,
- validating channels.imessage.remoteHost in config schema,
- rejecting unsafe auto-detected host tokens at runtime.

Fix Commit(s)

  • Pushed to main: 49d0def6d1e88f002026b1d2a35aa615d48a751a

OpenClaw thanks @allsmog for reporting.

Basic information

Type
reviewed
Severity
medium
Advisory on GitHub
Open advisory ↗
Repository advisory
Open repository advisory ↗
Source code
Browse source ↗
Published (advisory)
2026-03-03 21:35:21 UTC
Updated
2026-03-03 21:35:24 UTC
GitHub reviewed
2026-03-03 21:35:21 UTC

CVSS Scores

Base score Version Severity Vector
5.3 4.0 —
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and stable.
Attack requirements (AT:N)
No additional preconditions are required beyond normal reachability.
Privileges required (PR:L)
Low privileges are required.
User interaction (UI:N)
No user interaction is required.
Vulnerable system confidentiality impact (VC:N)
No confidentiality impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system integrity impact (VI:L)
Limited integrity impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system availability impact (VA:N)
No availability impact on the vulnerable system.
Subsequent system confidentiality impact (SC:N)
No confidentiality impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system integrity impact (SI:N)
No integrity impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system availability impact (SA:N)
No availability impact on subsequent systems.

Identifiers

Type Value
GHSA GHSA-2mc2-g238-722j ↗

CWEs

CWE id Name
CWE-78 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection')
CWE-295 Improper Certificate Validation

Credits

  • allsmog (reporter)

Affected packages (1)

Vulnerable version ranges and first patched releases as published by GitHub.

Ecosystem Package Vulnerable range First patched Vulnerable functions
npm openclaw <= 2026.2.17 2026.2.19 —

References

cvelogic Threat Intelligence