CVE-2026-101884

OpenClaw Windows Node before 2026.7.1 contains an incomplete environment-variable sanitizer in system.run that fails to

score 15HIGH 7.7

Summary

OpenClaw Windows Node before 2026.7.1 contains an incomplete environment-variable sanitizer in system.run that fails to block GIT_CONFIG_*, DOTNET_STARTUP_HOOKS, and JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS variables. Attackers with gateway or agent access can supply these variables to allowlisted tools like git, dotnet, or java to load attacker-controlled code and achieve arbitrary code execution.

Published 2026-09-30 · first seen here 2026-10-10

Analysis & write-ups

No technical write-up from a research team yet. Contact Zero checks Unit 42, Google/Mandiant, Microsoft, Talos, CrowdStrike, Rapid7, watchTowr and others several times a day, plus NVD and CISA reference links.

Where it shows in your logs

Windows or Active Directory · Command or code injection (remote code execution) medium confidence

What to look for

Shell metacharacters or encoded payloads in request parameters (; | ` $( %0a)
The vulnerable process spawning shells, then downloaders (curl, wget, certutil, Invoke-WebRequest)
Processes running as SYSTEM whose parent is a normal user process
New local or domain admin accounts, or users added to privileged groups
Unusual logons (type 3 or 10) to servers right before suspicious processes start

Data sources

Process creation · ATT&CK DS0009 Process Creation

Sentinel: DeviceProcessEventsSecurityEvent (4688)Sysmon Event ID 1_Im_ProcessCreate
Splunk: Endpoint.ProcessesXmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/OperationalWinEventLog:Security (4688)
CrowdStrike: ProcessRollup2SyntheticProcessRollup2

Authentication and sessions · ATT&CK DS0028 Logon Session Creation / DS0002 User Account Authentication

Sentinel: SigninLogsSecurityEvent (4624, 4625, 4648)DeviceLogonEventsIdentityLogonEvents_Im_Authentication
Splunk: Authentication.Authenticationpan:globalprotectVPN sourcetypes
CrowdStrike: UserLogonUserLogonFailed2Falcon Identity Protection events

Account and group changes · ATT&CK DS0002 User Account Creation / Modification

Sentinel: SecurityEvent (4720, 4728, 4732, 4756)AuditLogsIdentityDirectoryEvents
Splunk: Change.All_Changes (Account_Management)WinEventLog:Security (4720, 4732)
CrowdStrike: UserAccountCreatedUserAccountAddedToGroup

Network connections · ATT&CK DS0029 Network Connection Creation / Network Traffic Flow

Sentinel: DeviceNetworkEventsCommonSecurityLog (firewall)_Im_NetworkSession
Splunk: Network_Traffic.All_TrafficFirewall sourcetypes (pan:traffic, fortigate_traffic, cisco:asa)
CrowdStrike: NetworkConnectIP4NetworkReceiveAcceptIP4NetworkConnectIP6