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Security audit

LSP Code Navigation

Security checks for vulnerabilities and agentic risk

Overview

This skill is a coherent local code-navigation helper, but it lets an environment variable replace the language server with an arbitrary command that can receive source file contents.

Install only if you are comfortable with a local background daemon reading queried source files and sending them to installed language servers. Keep LSP_SERVER unset unless you intentionally point it at a trusted executable, and prefer direct invocation or a user-writable PATH location over a system-wide symlink.

Vulnerability Patterns
  • Skill Instruction HijackingAlters the agent's session goals or safety constraints when the skill loads
  • Agent Memory PoisoningWrites attacker-controlled rules into memory that affect later sessions
  • Remote Payload Retrieval and ExecutionFetches external code whose behavior can change after review
  • Embedded Malicious CodeShips malicious scripts inside the skill and executes them locally
  • Unauthorized Access and Privilege EscalationObtains permissions beyond the task's legitimate needs
Vulnerability Patterns
  • Prompt InjectionInstruction Override, Hidden Instructions, Exfiltration Commands
  • Excessive AgencyUnrestricted Tool Access, Autonomous Decision Making, Scope Creep
  • Behavioral ASTexec() Call, eval() Call, Dynamic Import
  • Taint TrackingDirect Taint Flow, Variable-Mediated Taint Flow, Credential Exfiltration Chain
  • MCP Least PrivilegeUnderdeclared Capability, Wildcard Permission, Missing Permission Declaration
Findings (8)

Tainted flow: 'response' from os.environ.get (line 732, credential/environment) → socket.socket.sendall (network output)

Critical
Category
Data Flow
Content
request = json.loads(data.decode("utf-8").strip())
                result = _handle_request(daemon, request)
                response = json.dumps(result).encode("utf-8")
                conn.sendall(response)
            except Exception as e:
                try:
                    conn.sendall(json.dumps({"error": str(e)}).encode("utf-8"))
Confidence
90% confidence
Finding
Credentials or environment variables flow to a network sink. This is a high-confidence indicator of credential exfiltration.

Context-Inappropriate Capability

High
Confidence
97% confidence
Finding
The LSP_SERVER environment variable lets an attacker replace the intended language-server binary with an arbitrary command, which the tool later executes as a subprocess. In agent or shared-runtime contexts, environment variables are often influenced by upstream callers or workspace setup, turning a code-navigation helper into a general command-execution primitive.

Lp3

Medium
Category
MCP Least Privilege
Confidence
95% confidence
Finding
The skill instructs users to run shell commands, create symlinks in PATH, read repository files, and rely on environment variables, but it declares no explicit tool scope or permissions metadata. This creates a trust and review gap: an agent or platform may grant broader capabilities than intended, and users cannot easily assess that the skill can influence shell, filesystem, and environment-sensitive behavior.

Description-Behavior Mismatch

Medium
Confidence
94% confidence
Finding
The manifest describes the skill as a tool for definitions, references, hover, symbols, and diagnostics. The implementation and top-level usage documentation additionally provide completions, signature help, rename, and workspace-symbol queries, which are materially broader IDE-style capabilities than the declared navigation scope.

Missing User Warnings

Medium
Confidence
96% confidence
Finding
The environment-controlled override directly changes which executable and arguments are run for all languages, broadening the trust boundary far beyond a normal code-navigation tool. In practice this enables arbitrary local code execution under the current user whenever the skill starts a server, especially dangerous in automated agent environments where environment state may be attacker-influenced.

subprocess module call

Medium
Category
Dangerous Code Execution
Content
self._diagnostics = {}

    def start(self):
        self._proc = subprocess.Popen(
            self.server_cmd,
            stdin=subprocess.PIPE,
            stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
Confidence
70% confidence
Finding
subprocess module calls execute external commands. Without careful input validation, this enables command injection.

Missing User Warnings

Medium
Confidence
89% confidence
Finding
When a file is opened, the full file contents are read and sent to the language-server subprocess via didOpen. This is inherent to LSP, but in this skill context it means potentially sensitive source code is transferred to whatever server binary is configured, including an overridden or compromised server, without any warning or consent boundary.

subprocess module call

Medium
Category
Dangerous Code Execution
Content
if ws:
        return ws
    try:
        root = subprocess.check_output(
            ["git", "rev-parse", "--show-toplevel"],
            stderr=subprocess.DEVNULL, text=True
        ).strip()
Confidence
70% confidence
Finding
subprocess module calls execute external commands. Without careful input validation, this enables command injection.

Static analysis

No suspicious patterns detected.