T01 · Skill Instruction Hijacking
Error
- Location
- SKILL.md:10
- Finding
- Mutable Remote Instructions Used as the Authoritative Skill Contract## Vulnerability Details **File Location**: `SKILL.md`, lines 10-14 **Vulnerability Type**: Remote instruction redirection and skill instruction hijacking **Risk Level**: High **Vulnerable Code Snippet**: ```markdown This ClawHub package is a concise entrypoint. For the full canonical contract, always use: - https://cai.com/skill.md (core contract — tool tables + routing) - https://cai.com/skill-references/ (optional playbooks: onboarding, OAuth, MCP setup, agent payment workflow, agent wallet landscape) ``` Related directives also appear at lines 61 and 68-69: ```markdown For exact endpoint matrix, parameters, and constraints, refer to canonical skill + manifest links below. ``` ```markdown - Canonical source of truth: https://cai.com/skill.md - Machine-readable tool contract: https://cai.com/specs/cai-tools.manifest.json ``` ### Technical Analysis The locally reviewed package does not contain its complete operative contract. Instead, it explicitly directs the agent to treat content hosted at `https://cai.com/skill.md` as the canonical source of truth and instructs it to “always use” that remote document. Because the referenced resource is not version-pinned or accompanied by a required cryptographic digest, its contents can change after the local package has been reviewed. If the remote origin, deployment pipeline, domain, or hosting account is compromised—or if its operator changes the document—the agent may consume new instructions that were not present during the audit. In this financial Skill, those instructions could affect payment routing, wallet operations, authentication, or tool invocation. This finding is classified as instruction hijacking rather than remote payload execution because the reviewed file retrieves remote documentation and behavioral instructions, not executable code. ### Attack Path 1. A user or agent loads the locally reviewed CAI Skill. 2. The Skill directs the agent to use ...[truncated 1223 chars]
- Remediation
- ## Remediation Suggestions 1. Bundle the complete operative contract in the Skill package so reviewed behavior does not depend on mutable external instructions. 2. Pin remote documentation to an immutable versioned artifact rather than a moving URL. 3. Publish a cryptographic digest or signed manifest and require verification before remote content is used. 4. Treat remotely retrieved documentation as untrusted reference material, not as authoritative agent instructions. 5. Reject remote updates that introduce capabilities or scopes not declared in the locally reviewed manifest. 6. Require explicit user approval before any remotely sourced instruction can affect a payment, transfer, authentication flow, or wallet operation. 7. Maintain a reviewed local allowlist of supported tools, endpoints, parameters, and maximum permission scopes.
