Paperclip: Privilege Escalation via Agent-Controlled workspaceStrategy.provisionCommand Leading to OS Command Execution

Summary

Paperclip is a Node.js server and React UI that orchestrates a team of AI agents to run a business. Versions of @paperclipai/server prior to 2026.416.0 contain a privilege escalation vulnerability that allows an attacker with an Agent API key to execute arbitrary OS commands on the Paperclip server host. An attacker with an agent credential can escalate privileges from the agent runtime to the Paperclip server host. The vulnerability occurs because agents are allowed to update their own adapterConfig via the /agents/:id API endpoint. The configuration field adapterConfig.workspaceStrategy.provisionCommand is later executed by the server runtime. As a result, an attacker controlling an agent credential can inject arbitrary shell commands which are executed by the Paperclip server during workspace provisioning. This breaks the intended trust boundary between agent runtime configuration and server host execution, allowing a compromised or malicious agent to escalate privileges and run commands on the host system. This vulnerability allows remote code execution on the server host. @paperclipai/server version 2026.416.0 fixes the issue.

Timeline

1. Apr 23, 2026, 12:47 AM UTCCVE published
2. Apr 23, 2026, 2:41 PM UTCCISA SSVC assessment

   Exploitation: poc · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total

3. Apr 23, 2026, 2:46 PM UTCRecord last updated

Affected versions

• paperclipai @paperclipai/server

  fixed in 2026.416.0

• @paperclipai/servernpm

  fixed in 2026.416.0

References 1