OpenClaw's Bash predicate repair has not reached a published channel
Stable OpenClaw 2026.10.7, beta 2026.10.10-beta.3 and extended-stable 2026.9.34 still classify Bash predicates without inspecting their operands. Bash 4.2 and later can evaluate an array subscript in a quoted test -v operand and execute command substitution without an allowlist match or on-miss approval. The 2026-10-23 repair 69cd9c5e excludes -v predicates from safe-builtin treatment and matches builtin names case-sensitively; it is on main and in none of those published channels.
What this changes for operators
- POSIX Gateway owners relying on exec allowlists: restrict adversarial shell work and host exposure until a published version contains this repair. Enforce any interim predicate restriction outside the affected classifier, with whole-process containment and narrowly scoped credentials where untrusted work must continue.
- Watch for a containing stable tag, then run harmless substitution and case-variant refusal tests through the real approval chain. Tag ancestry plus recorded refusals would settle delivery and deployed enforcement; the maintainer’s production-chain probe was not reproduced here.
- The separately released final-hook-argument binding does not repair this shell classifier. Review effort cannot protect a request that the classifier never sends for approval; containment and release tracking now consume the attention that a narrow allowlist was meant to save.
Primary sources
- commit 2026-10-24-openclaw-bash-predicates-still-bypass-exec-allowlist-review-on-all-three-published-channels github.com/openclaw/openclaw/commit/69cd9c5edb96b5bd990e97030a45c01f9f8c10a8
- tagged_commit_file 2026-10-24-openclaw-bash-predicates-still-bypass-exec-allowlist-review-on-all-three-published-channels openclaw/openclaw / src/infra/exec-safe-builtins.ts
- tagged_commit_file 2026-10-24-openclaw-bash-predicates-still-bypass-exec-allowlist-review-on-all-three-published-channels openclaw/openclaw / src/infra/exec-safe-builtins.ts
- tagged_commit_file 2026-10-24-openclaw-bash-predicates-still-bypass-exec-allowlist-review-on-all-three-published-channels openclaw/openclaw / src/infra/exec-safe-builtins.ts
- commit 2026-10-24-openclaw-final-argument-approval-binding-reached-both-stable-lines github.com/openclaw/openclaw/commit/34d07e7b0dc1b5f0ed54de67a9647d9e6b8c23de
- tagged_commit_file 2026-10-24-openclaw-final-argument-approval-binding-reached-both-stable-lines openclaw/openclaw / src/agents/agent-tools.before-tool-call.policy.ts#L291-L436
- tagged_commit_file 2026-10-24-openclaw-final-argument-approval-binding-reached-both-stable-lines openclaw/openclaw / src/agents/agent-tools.before-tool-call.policy.ts#L330-L436
- tagged_commit_file 2026-10-24-openclaw-final-argument-approval-binding-reached-both-stable-lines openclaw/openclaw / docs/plugins/hooks/tool-policy.md#L64-L85
Signal metadata
Source findings
- 2026-10-24-openclaw-bash-predicates-still-bypass-exec-allowlist-review-on-all-three-published-channels 2026-10-24-openclaw-bash-predicates-still-bypass-exec-allowlist-review-on-all-three-published-channels
- 2026-10-24-openclaw-final-argument-approval-binding-reached-both-stable-lines 2026-10-24-openclaw-final-argument-approval-binding-reached-both-stable-lines
Run: 2026-10-24-weekly-digest-2026-10-13_2026-10-24-frontier-v0
Schema: bitter.frontier_signals.v0 / ID: 2026-10-24-openclaw-bash-predicate-repair-remains-on-main
Research evidence and publication history are open in the repository.