From 364d49889e675f720f908fd00cd5fb917e78ae13 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Vincent Koc <vincentkoc@ieee.org>
Date: Sun, 26 Apr 2026 14:57:01 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] fix: allow trusted exec approvals home symlinks (#72377)

---
 CHANGELOG.md                           |  1 +
 src/infra/exec-approvals-store.test.ts | 25 +++++++++++++++++++++----
 src/infra/exec-approvals.ts            |  6 ++----
 3 files changed, 24 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index f2d9f658efa..2684c042d0c 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 
 ### Fixes
 
+- Exec approvals: accept a symlinked `OPENCLAW_HOME` as the trusted approvals root while still rejecting symlinked `.openclaw` path components below it. (#64663) Thanks @FunJim.
 - ACP: route server logs to stderr before Gateway config/bootstrap work so ACP stdout remains JSON-RPC only for IDE integrations. Fixes #49060. Thanks @Hollychou924.
 - Logging: propagate internal request trace scopes through Gateway HTTP requests and WebSocket frames so file logs, diagnostic events, agent run traces, model-call traces, OTEL spans, and trusted provider `traceparent` headers share a correlatable `traceId` without logging raw request or model content. Fixes #40353. Thanks @liangruochong44-ui.
 - Diagnostics/OTEL: capture privacy-safe model-call request payload bytes, streamed response bytes, first-response latency, and total duration in diagnostic events, plugin hooks, stability snapshots, and OTEL model-call spans/metrics without logging raw model content. Fixes #33832. Thanks @wwh830.
diff --git a/src/infra/exec-approvals-store.test.ts b/src/infra/exec-approvals-store.test.ts
index 3e2881ac6b1..1dac65a2bc2 100644
--- a/src/infra/exec-approvals-store.test.ts
+++ b/src/infra/exec-approvals-store.test.ts
@@ -187,17 +187,34 @@ describe("exec approvals store helpers", () => {
     expect(fs.readFileSync(targetPath, "utf8")).toBe('{"sentinel":true}\n');
   });
 
-  it("refuses to traverse a symlinked parent component in the approvals path", () => {
+  it("accepts a symlinked OPENCLAW_HOME as the trusted approvals root", () => {
     const realHome = makeTempDir();
     const linkedHome = `${realHome}-link`;
-    tempDirs.push(realHome);
-    fs.symlinkSync(realHome, linkedHome);
+    tempDirs.push(realHome, linkedHome);
+    fs.symlinkSync(realHome, linkedHome, "dir");
+    process.env.OPENCLAW_HOME = linkedHome;
+
+    saveExecApprovals({ version: 1, defaults: { security: "full" }, agents: {} });
+
+    expect(
+      fs.readFileSync(path.join(realHome, ".openclaw", "exec-approvals.json"), "utf8"),
+    ).toContain('"security": "full"');
+  });
+
+  it("refuses to traverse symlinked approvals components below a symlinked home", () => {
+    const realHome = makeTempDir();
+    const linkedHome = `${realHome}-link`;
+    const linkedStateTarget = path.join(realHome, "state-target");
+    tempDirs.push(realHome, linkedHome);
+    fs.mkdirSync(linkedStateTarget, { recursive: true });
+    fs.symlinkSync(realHome, linkedHome, "dir");
+    fs.symlinkSync(linkedStateTarget, path.join(realHome, ".openclaw"), "dir");
     process.env.OPENCLAW_HOME = linkedHome;
 
     expect(() =>
       saveExecApprovals({ version: 1, defaults: { security: "full" }, agents: {} }),
     ).toThrow(/Refusing to traverse symlink in exec approvals path/);
-    expect(fs.existsSync(path.join(realHome, ".openclaw"))).toBe(false);
+    expect(fs.existsSync(path.join(linkedStateTarget, "exec-approvals.json"))).toBe(false);
   });
 
   it("adds trimmed allowlist entries once and persists generated ids", () => {
diff --git a/src/infra/exec-approvals.ts b/src/infra/exec-approvals.ts
index 0eff54f557b..30fc5a8e78d 100644
--- a/src/infra/exec-approvals.ts
+++ b/src/infra/exec-approvals.ts
@@ -248,10 +248,8 @@ function assertNoSymlinkPathComponents(targetPath: string, trustedRoot: string):
   const relative = path.relative(resolvedRoot, resolvedTarget);
   const segments = relative && relative !== "." ? relative.split(path.sep) : [];
   let current = resolvedRoot;
-  for (const segment of [".", ...segments]) {
-    if (segment !== ".") {
-      current = path.join(current, segment);
-    }
+  for (const segment of segments) {
+    current = path.join(current, segment);
     try {
       const stat = fs.lstatSync(current);
       if (stat.isSymbolicLink()) {