SecurityScorecard's STRIKE research recently identified over 40,000
exposed OpenClaw gateway instances, with 35.4% running known-vulnerable
versions. The gateway already performs an npm update check on startup
and compares against the registry every 24 hours — but the result is
only logged to the server console. The control UI has zero visibility
into whether the running version is outdated, which means operators
have no idea they're exposed unless they happen to read server logs.
OpenClaw's user base is broadening well beyond developers who live in
terminals. Self-hosters, small teams, and non-technical operators are
deploying gateways and relying on the control dashboard as their
primary management interface. For these users, security has to be
surfaced where they already are — not hidden behind CLI output they
will never see. Making version awareness frictionless and actionable
is a prerequisite for reducing that 35.4% number.
This PR adds a sticky red warning banner to the top of the control UI
content area whenever the gateway detects it is running behind the
latest published version. The banner includes an "Update now" button
wired to the existing update.run RPC (the same mechanism the config
page already uses), so operators can act immediately without switching
to a terminal.
Server side:
- Cache the update check result in a module-level variable with a
typed UpdateAvailable shape (currentVersion, latestVersion, channel)
- Export a getUpdateAvailable() getter for the rest of the process
- Add an optional updateAvailable field to SnapshotSchema (backward
compatible — old clients ignore it, old servers simply omit it)
- Include the cached update status in buildGatewaySnapshot() so it
is delivered to every UI client on connect and reconnect
UI side:
- Add updateAvailable to GatewayHost, AppViewState, and the app's
reactive state so it flows through the standard snapshot pipeline
- Extract updateAvailable from the hello snapshot in applySnapshot()
- Render a .update-banner.callout.danger element with role="alert"
as the first child of <main>, before the content header
- Wire the "Update now" button to runUpdate(state), the same
controller function used by the config tab
- Use position:sticky and negative margins to pin the banner
edge-to-edge at the top of the scrollable content area
