Security audit

Ssh Essentials

Security checks for vulnerabilities and agentic risk

Overview

This is a documentation-only SSH skill, but it includes copyable SSH examples that weaken host verification and broadly expose forwarded agents without enough guardrails.

Review this skill before installing if users may copy commands directly. The main risks are insecure SSH habits: do not disable host-key checking except in tightly controlled throwaway cases, avoid agent forwarding on wildcard or untrusted hosts, dry-run rsync before using --delete, and validate sshd_config before restarting SSH.

A.I.G

Vulnerability Patterns

Insecure Skill Coding PracticesFinds exploitable flaws such as hardcoded secrets or command injection
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

Findings (2)

T09 · Insecure Skill Coding Practices

Warning

Location: SKILL.md:36
Finding: SSH Agent Forwarding Is Enabled Without Sufficient Trust-Boundary Restrictions
Content: View full analysis
Remediation: View remediation

T09 · Insecure Skill Coding Practices

Warning

Location: SKILL.md:204
Finding: Examples Disable SSH Host-Key Verification
Content: View full analysis
Remediation: View remediation

SkillSpector

Vulnerability Patterns

Data ExfiltrationExternal Transmission, Env Variable Harvesting, File System Enumeration
Privilege EscalationExcessive Permissions, Sudo/Root Execution, Credential Access
Tool MisuseTool Parameter Abuse, Chaining Abuse, Unsafe Defaults
Prompt InjectionInstruction Override, Hidden Instructions, Exfiltration Commands
Supply ChainUnpinned Dependencies, External Script Fetching, Obfuscated Code

Findings (23)

Credential Access

High

Category: Privilege Escalation
Confidence: 90% confidence
Finding: Code accesses credential files (SSH keys, AWS credentials, etc.). This could indicate credential theft attempts.
Content: Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 26)May include surrounding context.
md
ssh -v user@hostname # Connect with specific key ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa user@hostname # Connect and run command ssh user@hostname 'ls -la'

Credential Access

High

Category: Privilege Escalation
Confidence: 90% confidence
Finding: Code accesses credential files (SSH keys, AWS credentials, etc.). This could indicate credential theft attempts.
Content: Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 72)May include surrounding context.
md
ssh -v user@hostname # Connect with specific key ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa user@hostname # Connect and run command ssh user@hostname 'ls -la'

Credential Access

High

Category: Privilege Escalation
Confidence: 90% confidence
Finding: Code accesses credential files (SSH keys, AWS credentials, etc.). This could indicate credential theft attempts.
Content: Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 75)May include surrounding context.
md
ssh -v user@hostname # Connect with specific key ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa user@hostname # Connect and run command ssh user@hostname 'ls -la'

Credential Access

High

Category: Privilege Escalation
Confidence: 90% confidence
Finding: Code accesses credential files (SSH keys, AWS credentials, etc.). This could indicate credential theft attempts.
Content: Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 78)May include surrounding context.
md
ssh -v user@hostname # Connect with specific key ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa user@hostname # Connect and run command ssh user@hostname 'ls -la'

Credential Access

High

Category: Privilege Escalation
Confidence: 90% confidence
Finding: Code accesses credential files (SSH keys, AWS credentials, etc.). This could indicate credential theft attempts.
Content: Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 81)May include surrounding context.
md
ssh -v user@hostname # Connect with specific key ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa user@hostname # Connect and run command ssh user@hostname 'ls -la'

Credential Access

High

Category: Privilege Escalation
Confidence: 90% confidence
Finding: Code accesses credential files (SSH keys, AWS credentials, etc.). This could indicate credential theft attempts.
Content: Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 90)May include surrounding context.
md
ssh -v user@hostname # Connect with specific key ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa user@hostname # Connect and run command ssh user@hostname 'ls -la'

Credential Access

High

Category: Privilege Escalation
Confidence: 90% confidence
Finding: Code accesses credential files (SSH keys, AWS credentials, etc.). This could indicate credential theft attempts.
Content: Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 96)May include surrounding context.
md
ssh -v user@hostname # Connect with specific key ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa user@hostname # Connect and run command ssh user@hostname 'ls -la'

Credential Access

High

Category: Privilege Escalation
Confidence: 90% confidence
Finding: Code accesses credential files (SSH keys, AWS credentials, etc.). This could indicate credential theft attempts.
Content: Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 102)May include surrounding context.
md
ssh -v user@hostname # Connect with specific key ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa user@hostname # Connect and run command ssh user@hostname 'ls -la'

Credential Access

High

Category: Privilege Escalation
Confidence: 90% confidence
Finding: Code accesses credential files (SSH keys, AWS credentials, etc.). This could indicate credential theft attempts.
Content: Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 337)May include surrounding context.
md
ssh -v user@hostname # Connect with specific key ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa user@hostname # Connect and run command ssh user@hostname 'ls -la'

Credential Access

High

Category: Privilege Escalation
Confidence: 90% confidence
Finding: Code accesses credential files (SSH keys, AWS credentials, etc.). This could indicate credential theft attempts.
Content: Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 338)May include surrounding context.
md
ssh -v user@hostname # Connect with specific key ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa user@hostname # Connect and run command ssh user@hostname 'ls -la'

Credential Access

High

Category: Privilege Escalation
Confidence: 90% confidence
Finding: Code accesses credential files (SSH keys, AWS credentials, etc.). This could indicate credential theft attempts.
Content: Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 75)May include surrounding context.
md
ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub user@hostname # Manual key copy cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh user@hostname 'cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys' # Check key fingerprint ssh-keygen -lf ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Credential Access

High

Category: Privilege Escalation
Confidence: 90% confidence
Finding: Code accesses credential files (SSH keys, AWS credentials, etc.). This could indicate credential theft attempts.
Content: Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 339)May include surrounding context.
md
ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub user@hostname # Manual key copy cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh user@hostname 'cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys' # Check key fingerprint ssh-keygen -lf ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Tool Parameter Abuse

High

Category: Tool Misuse
Confidence: 80% confidence
Finding: Tool parameters are crafted to achieve unintended or unsafe behavior. Parameter abuse can bypass intended safety checks (e.g. shell=True, --force, dangerous glob patterns).
Content: Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 264)May include surrounding context.
md
rsync -avz --progress /local/dir/ user@hostname:/remote/dir/ # Sync with delete (mirror) rsync -avz --delete /local/dir/ user@hostname:/remote/dir/ # Exclude patterns rsync -avz --exclude '*.log' --exclude 'node_modules/' \

Missing User Warnings

Medium

Category: Not specified by scanner
Confidence: 96% confidence
Finding: The skill explicitly documents disabling StrictHostKeyChecking and later repeats a 'not recommended' variant, but it does not clearly explain that this bypasses server identity verification and enables man-in-the-middle attacks. In an SSH-focused skill, normalization of this flag is especially risky because users may copy-paste it during first connection or troubleshooting.
Content: No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Missing User Warnings

Medium

Category: Not specified by scanner
Confidence: 91% confidence
Finding: The guide instructs restarting sshd after configuration changes without warning that an incorrect sshd_config can terminate remote administrative access or lock the operator out. In a remote access skill, this operational footgun can cause outage or loss of access to managed systems.
Content: No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Sudo/Root Execution

Medium

Category: Privilege Escalation
Confidence: 70% confidence
Finding: Commands invoke sudo or root privileges. Verify this elevated access is necessary and justified.
Content: Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 298)May include surrounding context.
AllowUsers user1 user2

Restart SSH service

sudo systemctl restart sshd

text
### Connection security

Sudo/Root Execution

Medium

Category: Privilege Escalation
Confidence: 70% confidence
Finding: Commands invoke sudo or root privileges. Verify this elevated access is necessary and justified.
Content: Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 387)May include surrounding context.
AllowUsers user1 user2

Restart SSH service

sudo systemctl restart sshd

text
### Connection security

Sudo/Root Execution

Medium

Category: Privilege Escalation
Confidence: 70% confidence
Finding: Commands invoke sudo or root privileges. Verify this elevated access is necessary and justified.
Content: Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 388)May include surrounding context.
AllowUsers user1 user2

Restart SSH service

sudo systemctl restart sshd

text
### Connection security

File System Enumeration

Medium

Category: Data Exfiltration
Confidence: 60% confidence
Finding: Code scans file system directories looking for sensitive files. This could be reconnaissance for credential theft.
Content: Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 329)May include surrounding context.
ssh -T user@hostname

Check permissions

ls -la ~/.ssh/

Should be: 700 for ~/.ssh, 600 for keys, 644 for .pub files

text

Sudo/Root Execution

Medium

Category: Privilege Escalation
Confidence: 80% confidence
Finding: Commands invoke sudo or root privileges. Verify this elevated access is necessary and justified.
Content: Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 336)May include surrounding context.
Common issues

bash
# Fix permissions chmod 700 ~/.ssh chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa chmod 644 ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub chmod 644 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Sudo/Root Execution

Medium

Category: Privilege Escalation
Confidence: 80% confidence
Finding: Commands invoke sudo or root privileges. Verify this elevated access is necessary and justified.
Content: Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 337)May include surrounding context.
bash
# Fix permissions chmod 700 ~/.ssh chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa chmod 644 ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub chmod 644 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Sudo/Root Execution

Medium

Category: Privilege Escalation
Confidence: 80% confidence
Finding: Commands invoke sudo or root privileges. Verify this elevated access is necessary and justified.
Content: Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 338)May include surrounding context.
md
# Fix permissions chmod 700 ~/.ssh chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa chmod 644 ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub chmod 644 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys # Clear known_hosts entry

Sudo/Root Execution

Medium

Category: Privilege Escalation
Confidence: 80% confidence
Finding: Commands invoke sudo or root privileges. Verify this elevated access is necessary and justified.
Content: Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 339)May include surrounding context.
md
# Fix permissions chmod 700 ~/.ssh chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa chmod 644 ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub chmod 644 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys # Clear known_hosts entry

Static analysis

No suspicious patterns detected.

Overview

A.I.G

T09 · Insecure Skill Coding Practices

T09 · Insecure Skill Coding Practices

SkillSpector

Credential Access

Credential Access

Credential Access

Credential Access

Credential Access

Credential Access

Credential Access

Credential Access

Credential Access

Credential Access

Credential Access

Credential Access

Tool Parameter Abuse

Missing User Warnings

Missing User Warnings

Sudo/Root Execution

Restart SSH service

Sudo/Root Execution

Restart SSH service

Sudo/Root Execution

Restart SSH service

File System Enumeration

Check permissions

Should be: 700 for ~/.ssh, 600 for keys, 644 for .pub files

Sudo/Root Execution

Common issues

Sudo/Root Execution

Sudo/Root Execution

Sudo/Root Execution

Static analysis