GHSA-hhjv-jq77-cmvx zeptoclaw has Android device shell blocklist bypass via argument permutation

Not scored Published 5 Mar 2026

Attackers can bypass command blocklists in zeptoclaw by permuting arguments, allowing unauthorized execution of dangerous shell commands on connected Android devices.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Any signed-in user
Attackable: Local or same network only
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: Available

What is GHSA-hhjv-jq77-cmvx?

GHSA-hhjv-jq77-cmvx is a vulnerability in zeptoclaw, published on 5 Mar 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

Summary

zeptoclaw implements a blocklist to prevent dangerous commands running in android device shell, but this blocklist has several blocked commands with argements in the pattern literal, such as rm -f and rm -rf, this can be simply bypassed by using different orders for these arguments, such as rm -r -f or rm -fr etc.

Details

As in code src/tools/android/actions.rs#L413-L424, we can see the rm -f and rm -rf are hard coded and thus can be simply bypassed via rm -r -f or rm -fr etc.

pub async fn device_shell(adb: &amp;AdbExecutor, cmd: &amp;str) -&gt; Result&lt;String&gt; {
    // Normalize whitespace for blocklist check
    let normalized: String = cmd.split_whitespace().collect::&lt;Vec&lt;_&gt;&gt;().join(&#34; &#34;);
    let lower = normalized.to_lowercase();

    let blocked = [
        &#34;rm -rf&#34;,
        &#34;rm -r&#34;,
        &#34;reboot&#34;,
        &#34;factory_reset&#34;,
        &#34;wipe&#34;,
        &#34;format&#34;,
        &#34;dd if=&#34;,
        &#34;mkfs&#34;,
        &#34;flash&#34;,
        &#34;fastboot&#34;,
    ];
    for pattern in &amp;blocked {
        if lower.contains(pattern) {
            return Err(ZeptoError::Tool(format!(
                &#34;Blocked dangerous command containing &#39;{}&#39;&#34;,
                pattern
            )));
        }
    }

PoC

Set up zeptoclaw with an Android tool and then run the command rm -f -r etc.

Impact

Unauthorized command executed in Android device.

Credit

@zpbrent

Which versions are affected by GHSA-hhjv-jq77-cmvx?

2 open source packages ship an affected version, including zeptoclaw.

Package	Affected	Fixed in
`zeptoclaw` crates.io	All versions	`0.6.2`
`zeptoclaw` crates.io	All versions	`0.6.2`

How do I fix GHSA-hhjv-jq77-cmvx?

Upgrade zeptoclaw to 0.6.2 or later.

Is GHSA-hhjv-jq77-cmvx being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of GHSA-hhjv-jq77-cmvx in the wild and no public exploit code.