Openclaw cli: OpenClaw's exec allowlist analysis rejects shell expansion in unquoted heredocs (CVE-2026-44115)

The OpenClaw CLI's exec allowlist analysis mechanism did not properly reject shell expansions within unquoted heredocs, allowing malicious shell expansions to be hidden in the heredoc body. This could cause an allowlisted command to be interpreted differently at runtime than what was approved, potentially leading to unsafe command execution. The vulnerability affects openclaw versions from 2026.1.29 up to but not including 2026.4.22. The fix, included in version 2026.4.22, improves the exec command analyzer to track heredoc bodies accurately, reject unquoted heredoc expansion tokens and continuation-splice bypasses, and preserve quoted heredocs and safe literal text.

An attacker could craft an allowlisted command with an unquoted heredoc that contains hidden shell expansions, causing the shell to execute unintended commands at runtime. This undermines the safety guarantees of the exec allowlist, potentially leading to command injection or execution of malicious code. The vulnerability affects the integrity of command execution in affected versions of OpenClaw CLI.

A fix is available in OpenClaw CLI version 2026.4.22. Users should upgrade to this version or later to ensure the exec allowlist analysis properly rejects unsafe shell expansions in heredocs. No additional mitigation is required once the update is applied.