Security audit
Security checks for vulnerabilities and agentic risk
This Substack skill is clearly meant for publishing, but it uses a long-lived browser session cookie and can modify live public posts with broad triggers, so it needs review before installation.
Install only if you intend this agent to publish and edit the Alternative Partners Substack. Treat SUBSTACK_SID as a sensitive account credential, keep it out of chat logs and shell history where possible, rotate it if exposed, and require explicit user confirmation before publishing or editing live posts.
Remote code is downloaded and executed. This bypasses code review and could introduce malicious code.
Need the numeric post ID. Get it by fetching the post:
curl -s -b "substack.sid=$SUBSTACK_SID" \
"https://alternativepartners.substack.com/api/v1/posts/{slug}" \
| python3 -c "import json,sys; d=json.load(sys.stdin); print('id:', d.get('id'))"
Remote code is downloaded and executed. This bypasses code review and could introduce malicious code.
→ slug = the-revops-ai-reality-check-nobodys
curl -s -b "substack.sid=$SUBSTACK_SID" \
"https://alternativepartners.substack.com/api/v1/posts/THE-SLUG-HERE" \
| python3 -c "import json,sys; d=json.load(sys.stdin); print(d.get('id'))"
The activation description includes broad phrases like 'update the post' and 'edit that Substack' alongside generic editing language, which can cause the skill to trigger on ambiguous user requests that are not clearly intended for publication. In a skill that can publish or modify live content, overbroad routing increases the chance of unauthorized or unintended destructive actions against a production publication.
The skill instructs use of a long-lived authenticated session cookie and notes it remains valid for months, but does not prominently warn that this cookie is effectively a bearer credential granting account access. Documenting how to extract and reuse the cookie without explicit handling restrictions raises the risk of accidental disclosure, insecure storage, or misuse in logs, shells, and shared environments.
Subtle instructions detected that may alter agent decision-making or introduce hidden biases.
This is the `connect.sid` cookie. Valid for months unless you sign out of Substack in Chrome. To rotate: sign out of Substack → sign back in → open DevTools → copy `substack.sid` cookie value → update your secrets store.
The publisher module at `publishers/substack.py` handles auth automatically. Always use it rather than calling the API directly.
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No suspicious patterns detected.