GHSA-82g8-464f-2mv7 — medium GitHub Advisory (CVE-2026-4039) in npm/openclaw

Description

Summary

applySkillConfigEnvOverrides previously copied skills.entries.*.env values into the host process.env without applying the host env safety policy.

Impact

In affected versions, dangerous process-level variables such as NODE_OPTIONS could be injected when unset, which can influence runtime/child-process behavior.

Required attacker capability

An attacker must be able to modify OpenClaw local state/config (for example ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json) to set skills.entries.<skill>.env or related skill config values.

Remediation

Fixed in 2026.2.21 by sanitizing skill env overrides and blocking dangerous host env keys (including NODE_OPTIONS) before applying overrides, with regression tests covering blocked dangerous keys.

Fix Commit(s)

8c9f35cdb51692b650ddf05b259ccdd75cc9a83c

Found using MCPwner

Basic information

Type: reviewed
Severity: medium
Advisory on GitHub: Open advisory ↗
Repository advisory: Open repository advisory ↗
Source code: Browse source ↗
Published (advisory): 2026-02-27 21:36:17 UTC
Updated: 2026-03-12 17:30:23 UTC
GitHub reviewed: 2026-02-27 21:36:17 UTC

Score	Percentile
0.10%	27.72%

CVSS Scores

Base score	Version	Severity	Vector
5.1	4.0	—	`CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/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:H) High 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-82g8-464f-2mv7 ↗
CVE	CVE-2026-4039 ↗

CWEs

CWE id	Name
CWE-15	External Control of System or Configuration Setting
CWE-94	Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
CWE-1341	Multiple Releases of Same Resource or Handle

Credits

nedlir (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	< 2026.2.21	2026.2.21	—

OpenClaw: Skill env override host env injection via applySkillConfigEnvOverrides (defense-in-depth)