GHSA-w5c7-9qqw-6645: Openclaw OpenClaw Inter-session Prompts Could Be Vulnerability

{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-w5c7-9qqw-6645",
  "modified" : "2026-02-18T00:56:51Z",
  "published" : "2026-02-18T00:56:51Z",
  "aliases" : [ ],
  "summary" : "OpenClaw inter-session prompts could be treated as direct user instructions",
  "details" : "## Summary\n\nInter-session messages sent via `sessions_send` could be interpreted as direct end-user instructions because they were persisted as `role: \"user\"` without provenance metadata.\n\n## Affected Packages / Versions\n\n- Package: `openclaw` (npm)\n- Affected versions: `<= 2026.2.12` (i.e. `< 2026.2.13`)\n- Fixed in: `2026.2.13` (patched versions `>= 2026.2.13`)\n\n## Impact\n\nA delegated or internal session could inject instructions into another session that appeared equivalent to externally-originated user input.\n\nThis 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.\n\n## Technical details\n\nBefore the fix, routed inter-session prompts were stored as regular user turns without a verifiable source marker.\n\nAs a result, downstream workers and transcript readers could not distinguish:\n- External user input\n- Internal inter-session routed input\n\n## Fix\n\nOpenClaw now carries explicit input provenance end-to-end for routed prompts.\n\nKey changes:\n- Added structured provenance model (`inputProvenance`) with `kind` values including `inter_session`.\n- `sessions_send` and agent-to-agent steps now set inter-session provenance when invoking target runs.\n- Provenance is persisted on user messages as `message.provenance.kind = \"inter_session\"` (role remains `user` for provider compatibility).\n- Transcript readers and memory helpers were updated to respect provenance and avoid treating inter-session prompts as external user-originated input.\n- Runtime context rebuilding now annotates inter-session turns with an explicit in-memory marker (`[Inter-session message]`) for clearer model-side disambiguation.\n- Regression tests were added for transcript parsing, session tools flow, runner sanitization, and memory hook behavior.\n\n## Fix Commit(s)\n\n- `85409e401b6586f83954cb53552395d7aab04797`\n\n## Workarounds\n\nIf immediate upgrade is not possible:\n- Disable or restrict `sessions_send` in affected environments.\n- Do not use role alone as an authority boundary; require provenance-aware checks in orchestration logic.\n\n## Credit\n\nReported by @anbecker.\n\nThanks @anbecker for reporting.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V4",
    "score" : "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"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "npm",
      "name" : "openclaw"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "2026.2.13"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/security/advisories/GHSA-w5c7-9qqw-6645"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/commit/85409e401b6586f83954cb53552395d7aab04797"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/releases/tag/v2026.2.12"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-345" ],
    "severity" : "HIGH",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2026-02-18T00:56:51Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : null
  }
}