The vulnerability arises from HKUDS OpenHarness exposing plugin lifecycle commands, such as "/plugin install", "/plugin enable", "/plugin disable", and "/reload-plugins", through its channel layer by default. This exposure allows an attacker that can reach the channel layer to remotely manage plugin trust and activation state, enabling the installation and activation of unauthorized plugins. The flaw is a misconfiguration related to privilege management, identified as CWE–276, and the CVSS score of 8.7 reflects the high impact of potential unauthorized code execution.

The affected platform is HKUDS OpenHarness. All versions prior to the remediation commit merged in PR #156 suffer from the exposure. The patch is available in the v0.1.7 release, which incorporates the fix that restricts plugin lifecycle endpoints to authorized users only.

The vulnerability can be exploited by any remote sender that can access the channel layer, with no additional authentication required. Attackers can trigger unsafe plugin state changes, potentially elevating their privileges or injecting malicious code. The EPSS score is not available, and the vulnerability is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog, but the lack of exposure controls combined with the high CVSS indicates a significant risk for systems that have not applied the latest patch.