Summary

On Node.js v24, the gateway emits the following deprecation warning on startup:

(node:XXXXX) [DEP0190] DeprecationWarning: Passing args to a child process with shell option true can lead to security vulnerabilities, as the arguments are not escaped, only concatenated.

This appears to be triggered by a child_process.spawn() call in OpenClaw's codebase where both a separate args array and { shell: true } are passed together. Node.js v24 introduced DEP0190 to flag this pattern because the args are concatenated without shell-escaping, which can allow shell injection if any argument contains user-controlled input.

Steps to reproduce

1. Run OpenClaw gateway on Node.js v24+
2. Check the gateway log or console output after startup
3. Observe: [DEP0190] DeprecationWarning: Passing args to a child process with shell option true...

Expected behaviour

No DEP0190 warning. Child processes should either:

• Use shell: false with a properly constructed args array (preferred), or
• Use shell: true without a separate args array (pass a single command string)

Actual behaviour

DEP0190 warning emitted on every gateway start on Node.js v24+. Not breaking — gateway functions normally — but indicates a latent shell injection risk and will become noisier as Node.js deprecation tracking tightens.

Environment

• OpenClaw: v2026.4.5
• Node.js: v24.6.0
• OS: Windows 10 x64 (build 19045)

Additional context

The full deprecation trace can be obtained by running the gateway with --trace-deprecation:

node --trace-deprecation C:\...\openclaw\dist\index.js gateway

This would identify the exact line in the source where the spawn call with { shell: true, args: [...] } occurs.

The fix is straightforward: locate all spawn/execFile calls using { shell: true } with a separate args array and either switch to shell: false or restructure to pass a single command string. This also removes the theoretical shell injection surface if any of those arguments ever incorporate external input.