openclaw-claude-bridge: sandbox is not effective - `--allowed-tools ""` does not restrict available tools

Affected

openclaw-claude-bridge v1.1.0

Issue

v1.1.0 spawns the Claude Code CLI subprocess with --allowed-tools "" and the release notes + README claim this "disables all CLI tools" for sandboxing. This claim is incorrect.

Per the Claude Code CLI documentation, --allowed-tools (alias --allowedTools) is an auto-approve allowlist of tools that execute without permission prompts — NOT a restriction on which tools are available. The correct flag to restrict the available tool set is --tools:

--tools <tools...> Specify the list of available tools from the built-in set. Use "" to disable all tools, "default" to use all tools, or specify tool names (e.g. "Bash,Edit,Read").

Impact

• All CLI tools (Read/Write/Bash/WebFetch/...) remain nominally available to the spawned subprocess.
• Actual execution behavior in --print non-interactive mode depends on undocumented CLI defaults (may auto-deny, may error out, may hang).
• Users who deploy the bridge behind any interface that forwards untrusted prompts (e.g., publicly exposed OpenClaw gateway, automated pipelines with web-fetched context, agents that consume tool results from other systems) may be relying on a sandbox that does not exist.

The README explicitly makes a security claim the code does not uphold, creating a false sense of safety for downstream operators. If the underlying CLI behavior changes in a future version to auto-allow tools in --print mode, prompt-injection attacks could trigger arbitrary Read/Write/Bash operations in the gateway's process context.

Patches

Fixed in v1.1.1 (commit 8a296f5) by switching to --tools "". The environment variable was also renamed from CLAUDE_ALLOWED_TOOLS to CLAUDE_TOOLS to match the flag.

Workarounds

Setting CLAUDE_ALLOWED_TOOLS on v1.1.0 has no mitigating effect. Upgrade to v1.1.1 or manually edit dist/cli-bridge.js to replace --allowed-tools with --tools.

References

• Fix: https://github.com/SeaL773/openclaw-claude-bridge/commit/8a296f5
• v1.1.1 notes: https://github.com/SeaL773/openclaw-claude-bridge/releases/tag/v1.1.1
• Claude Code CLI reference: https://docs.claude.com/en/docs/claude-code/cli-reference

Credit

Found during a second-round code review.