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Security audit

AIsa Tavily Search

Security checks for vulnerabilities and agentic risk

Overview

This skill is a straightforward AIsa/Tavily web research wrapper that sends user-provided searches or URLs to AIsa with an API key, with no evidence of hidden persistence, privilege escalation, or unrelated behavior.

Install only if you are comfortable sending search queries or supplied URLs to AIsa/Tavily using your AISA_API_KEY. Avoid using it with secrets, private internal documents, regulated personal data, or queries that should stay local.

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
  • Data ExfiltrationExternal Transmission, Env Variable Harvesting, File System Enumeration
  • Trigger AbuseOverly Broad Trigger, Shadow Command Trigger, Keyword Baiting Trigger
  • MCP Least PrivilegeUnderdeclared Capability, Wildcard Permission, Missing Permission Declaration
  • Prompt InjectionInstruction Override, Hidden Instructions, Exfiltration Commands
  • Privilege EscalationExcessive Permissions, Sudo/Root Execution, Credential Access
Findings (9)

Undeclared Tool Scope

Medium
Category
MCP Least Privilege
Confidence
92% confidence
Finding

The skill declares access to an API key and implies networked execution, but it does not define an explicit tool scope such as allowed tools or permissions boundaries. In an agent ecosystem, that increases the chance the skill is invoked with broader authority than intended, enabling unbounded outbound requests or unintended secret exposure paths through environment-backed execution.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Vague Triggers

Medium
Category
Not specified by scanner
Confidence
90% confidence
Finding

The description uses broad triggers like 'user needs search, synthesis, competitor scans, or trend discovery,' which are common requests and lack precise invocation boundaries. That can cause over-invocation of a network-capable skill, sending user queries or sensitive context to external services when a local answer or narrower tool would have been sufficient.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Vague Triggers

Medium
Category
Not specified by scanner
Confidence
88% confidence
Finding

The example requests are broad and everyday in nature, encouraging use for generic research and comparisons without clarifying privacy, sensitivity, or consent boundaries. In a skill that performs external retrieval, ambiguous examples can normalize routing arbitrary prompts to third-party services, increasing data leakage and unnecessary external dependency risk.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

External Transmission

Medium
Category
Data Exfiltration
Confidence
60% confidence
Finding

Data is being sent to an external URL. This could be legitimate telemetry or data exfiltration. Manual review is recommended.

Content

Scanner excerpt · scripts/extract.mjs (reported line 24)May include surrounding context.

js
process.exit(1);
}

const resp = await fetch("https://api.aisa.one/apis/v1/tavily/extract", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "Content-Type": "application/json",

External Transmission

Medium
Category
Data Exfiltration
Confidence
50% confidence
Finding

Data is being sent to an external URL. This could be legitimate telemetry or data exfiltration. Manual review is recommended.

Content

Scanner excerpt · scripts/extract.mjs (reported line 24)May include surrounding context.

js
process.exit(1);
}

const resp = await fetch("https://api.aisa.one/apis/v1/tavily/extract", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "Content-Type": "application/json",

External Transmission

Medium
Category
Data Exfiltration
Confidence
50% confidence
Finding

Data is being sent to an external URL. This could be legitimate telemetry or data exfiltration. Manual review is recommended.

Content

Scanner excerpt · scripts/search.mjs (reported line 61)May include surrounding context.

js
process.exit(1);
}

const resp = await fetch("https://api.aisa.one/apis/v1/tavily/extract", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "Content-Type": "application/json",

Missing User Warnings

Medium
Category
Not specified by scanner
Confidence
92% confidence
Finding

This code sends user-supplied URLs to an external API and includes a bearer token from an environment variable, but there is no confirmation prompt, user-facing notice, or explanatory comment/docstring disclosing that data is transmitted off-host. For a code file, this matches the missing-warning criterion for network/HTTP calls and sensitive credential use when no visible disclosure is present.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

External Transmission

Medium
Category
Data Exfiltration
Confidence
60% confidence
Finding

Data is being sent to an external URL. This could be legitimate telemetry or data exfiltration. Manual review is recommended.

Content

Scanner excerpt · scripts/search.mjs (reported line 61)May include surrounding context.

js
body.days = days;
}

const resp = await fetch("https://api.aisa.one/apis/v1/tavily/search", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "Content-Type": "application/json",

Missing User Warnings

Medium
Category
Not specified by scanner
Confidence
92% confidence
Finding

This code sends the user-provided query to a third-party HTTPS endpoint, which is a data-transmitting network operation covered by the missing-warning rule for code files. While the usage string documents arguments, it does not disclose that query contents will be sent off-box to an external service.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Static analysis

No suspicious patterns detected.