Executive Summary

This vulnerability exists in OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.2.23, where the safeBins validation for the sort command fails to properly validate GNU long-option abbreviations. Attackers can exploit this by using abbreviated long options to bypass denied-flag checks, allowing them to execute sort commands without approval in allowlist mode.

The root cause is that the validation mechanism did not reject ambiguous or unknown abbreviated long options, enabling attackers to circumvent restrictions intended to block unsafe command-line arguments.

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Impact Analysis

This vulnerability can allow remote attackers to execute sort commands with abbreviated long options that bypass security checks. This means attackers can run potentially unsafe or unauthorized commands that should have been blocked by the allowlist mode.

The impact includes unauthorized command execution, which can lead to security breaches such as data manipulation, unauthorized access, or disruption of normal operations.

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Compliance Impact

I don't know

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Detection Guidance

[{'type': 'paragraph', 'content': 'Detection of this vulnerability involves monitoring for usage of the sort command with abbreviated long options that bypass safeBins validation. Since the vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute sort commands with abbreviated long options to skip approval requirements, detection can focus on identifying such command-line arguments.'}, {'type': 'paragraph', 'content': 'Specifically, commands that use abbreviated or ambiguous long options for sort (e.g., --o instead of --output) should be flagged.'}, {'type': 'paragraph', 'content': 'You can use system auditing or command-line logging tools to capture invocations of sort with suspicious abbreviated options.'}, {'type': 'paragraph', 'content': 'Example commands to detect such usage might include:'}, {'type': 'list_item', 'content': "Using shell history or audit logs to grep for sort commands with abbreviated options: `grep -E 'sort.*--[a-z]+' /var/log/audit/audit.log`"}, {'type': 'list_item', 'content': 'Using process monitoring tools like `ps` or `pstree` combined with grep to find running sort commands with unusual flags.'}, {'type': 'list_item', 'content': 'Implementing custom scripts to parse command-line arguments and flag any abbreviated long options that are not fully spelled out.'}] [1]

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Mitigation Strategies

The immediate mitigation step is to upgrade OpenClaw to version 2026.2.23 or later, where the safeBins validation for long options has been hardened to reject unknown or ambiguous abbreviated long options.

This update enforces strict fail-closed validation of long options, preventing attackers from bypassing denied-flag checks via abbreviated options.

Additionally, review and enforce the denied flags list for binaries like sort to block filesystem-dependent or unsafe flags such as --compress-program, --files0-from, --output, --random-source, and --temporary-directory.

If upgrading immediately is not possible, consider restricting access to the affected binaries or disabling allowlist mode temporarily to prevent exploitation.

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