T05 · Unauthorized Access and Privilege Escalation
Note
- Location
- dx-industry-research/SKILL.md:6
- Finding
- Unnecessary Shell Access in the Industry Research Skill<![CDATA[ ## Vulnerability Details **File Location**: `dx-industry-research/SKILL.md`, lines 6–13 **Vulnerability Type**: Excessive tool permission **Risk Level**: Low ### Vulnerable Code ```yaml allowed-tools: - Read - Write - Edit - WebSearch - WebFetch - Bash - Glob - Grep ``` ### Technical Analysis The skill grants unrestricted `Bash` access even though its documented workflow consists of public-source policy research, market research, source verification, and report creation. No documented step requires arbitrary shell command execution. This violates least-privilege principles by exposing a general-purpose local command-execution channel to a workflow that processes untrusted external web content. The repository does not contain an instruction that actively exploits this permission, so this is a capability-exposure issue rather than evidence of embedded malicious behavior. ### Attack Path 1. The industry research skill is activated. 2. The agent retrieves an untrusted or compromised public webpage using `WebSearch` or `WebFetch`. 3. The retrieved content contains prompt-injection instructions that attempt to induce local command execution. 4. Because `Bash` is included in `allowed-tools`, an insufficiently isolated runtime could permit the agent to execute those commands. 5. The resulting access is limited by the operating-system identity, sandbox, and filesystem permissions assigned to the agent process. ### Impact Assessment Successful exploitation could allow commands to run with the privileges of the agent process. Depending on runtime isolation, this could expose readable local files, permit modification of writable files, or execute locally available programs. It does not directly provide privilege elevation beyond the hosting process, and no persistence or credential-access mechanism was found in the project. ]]>
- Remediation
- <![CDATA[ ## Remediation Suggestions - Remove `Bash` from this skill's `allowed-tools` list. - Retain only `Read`, `Write`, `Edit`, `WebSearch`, `WebFetch`, `Glob`, and `Grep` where required. - Treat all fetched webpages as untrusted data and prevent retrieved content from authorizing tool calls. - If a future research operation genuinely requires command execution, expose a narrowly scoped wrapper that only accepts predefined operations and validated arguments. - Require explicit user approval for any exceptional local command execution. - Run web-enabled skills in a sandbox with restricted filesystem access and no access to credentials or unrelated project directories. ]]>
