GHSA-w5c7-9qqw-6645

Suggest an improvement
Source
https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-w5c7-9qqw-6645
Import Source
https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2026/02/GHSA-w5c7-9qqw-6645/GHSA-w5c7-9qqw-6645.json
JSON Data
https://api.osv.dev/v1/vulns/GHSA-w5c7-9qqw-6645
Published
2026-02-18T00:56:51Z
Modified
2026-02-18T01:44:52Z
Severity
  • 7.1 (High) CVSS_V4 - CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:L/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N CVSS Calculator
Summary
OpenClaw inter-session prompts could be treated as direct user instructions
Details

Summary

Inter-session messages sent via sessions_send could be interpreted as direct end-user instructions because they were persisted as role: "user" without provenance metadata.

Affected Packages / Versions

  • Package: openclaw (npm)
  • Affected versions: <= 2026.2.12 (i.e. < 2026.2.13)
  • Fixed in: 2026.2.13 (patched versions >= 2026.2.13)

Impact

A delegated or internal session could inject instructions into another session that appeared equivalent to externally-originated user input.

This is an instruction-provenance confusion issue (confused-deputy style), which can lead to unintended privileged behavior in workflows that trust role: "user" as a sole authority signal.

Technical details

Before the fix, routed inter-session prompts were stored as regular user turns without a verifiable source marker.

As a result, downstream workers and transcript readers could not distinguish:

  • External user input
  • Internal inter-session routed input

Fix

OpenClaw now carries explicit input provenance end-to-end for routed prompts.

Key changes:

  • Added structured provenance model (inputProvenance) with kind values including inter_session.
  • sessions_send and agent-to-agent steps now set inter-session provenance when invoking target runs.
  • Provenance is persisted on user messages as message.provenance.kind = "inter_session" (role remains user for provider compatibility).
  • Transcript readers and memory helpers were updated to respect provenance and avoid treating inter-session prompts as external user-originated input.
  • Runtime context rebuilding now annotates inter-session turns with an explicit in-memory marker ([Inter-session message]) for clearer model-side disambiguation.
  • Regression tests were added for transcript parsing, session tools flow, runner sanitization, and memory hook behavior.

Fix Commit(s)

  • 85409e401b6586f83954cb53552395d7aab04797

Workarounds

If immediate upgrade is not possible:

  • Disable or restrict sessions_send in affected environments.
  • Do not use role alone as an authority boundary; require provenance-aware checks in orchestration logic.

Credit

Reported by @anbecker.

Thanks @anbecker for reporting.

Database specific 
{
    "cwe_ids": [
        "CWE-345"
    ],
    "github_reviewed": true,
    "github_reviewed_at": "2026-02-18T00:56:51Z",
    "nvd_published_at": null,
    "severity": "HIGH"
}
References

Affected packages

npm / openclaw

Package

Name
openclaw
View open source insights on deps.dev
Purl
pkg:npm/openclaw

Affected ranges

Type
SEMVER
Events
Introduced
0 Unknown introduced version / All previous versions are affected
Fixed
2026.2.13

Database specific

source 
"https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2026/02/GHSA-w5c7-9qqw-6645/GHSA-w5c7-9qqw-6645.json"