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GHSA-w5c7-9qqw-6645 json

OpenClaw inter-session prompts could be treated as direct user instructions

published 8mo ago modified 8mo ago

cvss
—
not scored
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
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no score, EPSS covers CVEs only
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

## 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.

Patch / fix

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Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
npm openclaw
<2026.2.13
2026.2.13

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-345 Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

The maintainers of openclaw/openclaw published their own advisory on GitHub. Reviewed sources take precedence over it.