finviz-crawler

• Outcome: Review
• Latest audit: May 28, 2026, 6:02 AM
• Version:
  3.0.0

Overview

This is a real financial-news crawler, but its ticker-removal logic can delete local directories outside its article folder if given unsafe ticker values.

Install only after reviewing or patching the deletion paths. Avoid unusual ticker names, keep backups of any archive you care about, and require ticker validation, path containment checks, and an explicit confirmation or dry-run before using remove-ticker or automatic cleanup.

SkillSpector

By NVIDIA

Vulnerability Patterns

• MCP Tool Poisoning: Hidden Instructions, Unicode Deception, Parameter Description Injection
• Prompt Injection: Instruction Override, Hidden Instructions, Exfiltration Commands
• Data Exfiltration: External Transmission, Env Variable Harvesting, File System Enumeration
• Privilege Escalation: Excessive Permissions, Sudo/Root Execution, Credential Access
• Supply Chain: Unpinned Dependencies, External Script Fetching, Obfuscated Code

Findings (6)

Intent-Code Divergence

Medium

• Confidence: 95% confidence
• Finding: The documentation states the query tool is 'read-only SQLite queries (no HTTP, stdlib only)' while elsewhere it exposes commands that add and remove tickers from the same database. This is a security-relevant documentation inconsistency because operators may grant or automate use of the tool under the false assumption that it cannot modify stored state.

Description-Behavior Mismatch

High

• Confidence: 97% confidence
• Finding: The script is presented as a query/read tool, but `remove_tickers()` performs irreversible deletion of article files and database rows. In an agent or automation context, this hidden destructive capability can be triggered under the guise of a safe read-only operation, causing data loss well beyond what a user would reasonably expect from the documented purpose.

Intent-Code Divergence

High

• Confidence: 94% confidence
• Finding: The top-level documentation claims the tool reads from SQLite and article files for summarization, but the implementation also mutates ticker state and deletes stored content from both disk and the database. This mismatch is security-relevant because operators, agents, or reviewers may grant broader trust or execute the script in contexts where only read-only behavior was expected.

Missing User Warnings

Medium

• Confidence: 83% confidence
• Finding: The skill advertises automatic expiry that deletes articles from both the database and disk, but it does not prominently warn about irreversible data loss. In a continuously running daemon with background cleanup, users may unintentionally lose retained data or summaries they expected to preserve.

Missing User Warnings

Medium

• Confidence: 96% confidence
• Finding: Ticker removal immediately deletes per-ticker article directories, flat-path files referenced by the database, and associated article rows without any explicit confirmation or warning. In scheduled or agent-driven use, a mistaken argument, prompt injection, or bad automation step could silently destroy stored data with no recovery path.

Missing User Warnings

Medium

• Confidence: 96% confidence
• Finding: The installer automatically creates and enables a persistent background service on Linux or a launch agent on macOS without an explicit consent prompt. Persistence is security-relevant because it causes the crawler to run automatically on login and continue network/data activity beyond the one-time install step, which can surprise users and increase exposure if the crawler or its dependencies are later compromised.

VirusTotal

66/66 vendors flagged this skill as clean.