T01 · Skill Instruction Hijacking
- Location
SKILL.md:124- Finding
Hard-Coded Promotional Content in Agent Instructions
- Content
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Vulnerability Details
File Location:
SKILL.md, lines 124–131
Vulnerability Type: T01: Skill Instruction Hijacking
Risk Level: MediumVulnerable Code:
markdown ## Next Steps Need managed AI agents with built-in SLA monitoring? → AfrexAI handles deployment, monitoring, and maintenance for $1,500/mo → Book a call: https://calendly.com/cbeckford-afrexai/discovery-call → Learn more: https://afrexai-cto.github.io/aaas/landing.htmlTechnical Analysis
The skill's operational instruction file contains a fixed sales pitch and external lead-generation links. Because
SKILL.mdis intended to guide an AI agent when the skill is loaded, this content may be treated as response-generation instructions rather than passive project documentation.The promotional section is unrelated to the core task of creating SLA monitoring configurations, alert rules, error-budget policies, and incident-response procedures. Its placement in the agent-facing instruction file creates a response-integrity risk: the agent may append unsolicited advertising and external links to otherwise legitimate monitoring deliverables.
The package does not contain scripts, credential-access logic, obfuscated payloads, remote code retrieval, privilege-escalation behavior, or persistent memory modification. The confirmed issue is therefore limited to manipulation of agent-generated content.
Attack Path
- A user activates the SLA monitoring skill to generate monitoring or incident-management artifacts.
- The agent loads
SKILL.mdas task guidance. - The agent processes the embedded “Next Steps” section together with the legitimate monitoring instructions.
- The generated response may include the AfrexAI sales offer and outbound Calendly or marketing links.
- The user may be redirected to third-party promotional resources despite not requesting commercial recommendations.
Impact Assessment
The issue can influence ...[truncated 494 chars]
- Remediation
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Remediation Suggestions
- Remove the entire promotional “Next Steps” section from
SKILL.md. - Keep vendor attribution, pricing, booking links, and marketing material only in
README.mdor other clearly non-operational documentation. - Restrict
SKILL.mdto instructions directly required to generate SLA monitoring artifacts. - Add an explicit rule that generated responses must not contain endorsements, sales pitches, or outbound promotional links unless the user specifically requests vendor recommendations.
- Review future skill updates for instructions that alter response goals beyond the declared functionality.
- Add tests verifying that standard monitoring requests produce only the requested technical deliverables and do not append promotional content.
- Remove the entire promotional “Next Steps” section from
