ClawSec for NanoClaw

Security advisory monitoring that protects your WhatsApp bot from known vulnerabilities in skills and dependencies.

Overview

ClawSec provides MCP tools that check installed skills against a curated feed of security advisories. It prevents installation of vulnerable skills, includes exploitability context for triage, and alerts you to issues in existing ones.

Core principle: Check before you install. Monitor what's running.

When to Use

Use ClawSec tools when:

• Installing a new skill (check safety first)
• User asks "are my skills secure?"
• Investigating suspicious behavior
• Regular security audits
• After receiving security notifications

Do NOT use for:

• Code review (use other tools)
• Performance issues (different concern)
• General debugging

MCP Tools Available

Pre-Installation Check

// Before installing any skill
const safety = await tools.clawsec_check_skill_safety({
  skillName: 'new-skill',
  skillVersion: '1.0.0'  // optional
});

if (!safety.safe) {
  // Show user the risks before proceeding
  console.warn(`Security issues: ${safety.advisories.map(a => a.id)}`);
}

Security Audit

// Check all installed skills (defaults to ~/.claude/skills in the container)
const result = await tools.clawsec_check_advisories({
  installRoot: '/home/node/.claude/skills'  // optional
});

if (result.matches.some((m) =>
  m.advisory.severity === 'critical' || m.advisory.exploitability_score === 'high'
)) {
  // Alert user immediately
  console.error('Urgent advisories found!');
}

Browse Advisories

// List advisories with filters
const advisories = await tools.clawsec_list_advisories({
  severity: 'high',               // optional
  exploitabilityScore: 'high'     // optional
});

Quick Reference

Task	Tool	Key Parameter
Pre-install check	clawsec_check_skill_safety	skillName
Audit all skills	clawsec_check_advisories	installRoot (optional)
Browse feed	clawsec_list_advisories	severity, type, exploitabilityScore (optional)
Verify package signature	clawsec_verify_skill_package	packagePath
Refresh advisory cache	clawsec_refresh_cache	(none)
Check file integrity	clawsec_check_integrity	mode, autoRestore (optional)
Approve file change	clawsec_approve_change	path
View baseline status	clawsec_integrity_status	path (optional)
Verify audit log	clawsec_verify_audit	(none)

Common Patterns

Pattern 1: Safe Skill Installation

// ALWAYS check before installing
const safety = await tools.clawsec_check_skill_safety({
  skillName: userRequestedSkill
});

if (safety.safe) {
  // Proceed with installation
  await installSkill(userRequestedSkill);
} else {
  // Show user the risks and get confirmation
  await showSecurityWarning(safety.advisories);
  if (await getUserConfirmation()) {
    await installSkill(userRequestedSkill);
  }
}

Pattern 2: Periodic Security Check

// Add to scheduled tasks
schedule_task({
  prompt: "Check advisories using clawsec_check_advisories and alert when critical or high-exploitability matches appear",
  schedule_type: "cron",
  schedule_value: "0 9 * * *"  // Daily at 9am
});

Pattern 3: User Security Query

User: "Are my skills secure?"

You: I'll check installed skills for known vulnerabilities.
[Use clawsec_check_advisories]

Response:
✅ No urgent issues found.
- 2 low-severity/low-exploitability advisories
- All skills up to date

Common Mistakes

❌ Installing without checking

// DON'T
await installSkill('untrusted-skill');

// DO
const safety = await tools.clawsec_check_skill_safety({
  skillName: 'untrusted-skill'
});
if (safety.safe) await installSkill('untrusted-skill');

❌ Ignoring exploitability context

// DON'T: Use severity only
if (advisory.severity === 'high') {
  notifyNow(advisory);
}

// DO: Use exploitability + severity
if (
  advisory.exploitability_score === 'high' ||
  advisory.severity === 'critical'
) {
  notifyNow(advisory);
}

❌ Skipping critical severity

// DON'T: Ignore high exploitability in medium severity advisories
if (advisory.severity === 'critical') alert();

// DO: Prioritize exploitability and severity together
if (advisory.exploitability_score === 'high' || advisory.severity === 'critical') {
  // Alert immediately
}

Implementation Details

Feed Source: https://clawsec.prompt.security/advisories/feed.json

This signed feed is consolidated. NanoClaw receives NVD CVEs, approved community advisories, and provisional GHSA-without-CVE advisories through the same default URL.

Update Frequency: Every 6 hours (automatic)

Signature Verification: Ed25519 signed feeds Package Verification Policy: pinned key only, bounded package/signature paths

Cache Location: /workspace/project/data/clawsec-advisory-cache.json

See INSTALL.md for setup and docs/ for advanced usage.

Real-World Impact

• Prevents installation of skills with known RCE vulnerabilities
• Alerts to supply chain attacks in dependencies
• Provides actionable remediation steps
• Zero false positives (curated feed only)

Release Artifact Verification

For standalone installs, verify the signed release manifest before trusting SKILL.md, skill.json, or the archive. The skill.json file is the package metadata/SBOM source, and the release pipeline signs checksums.json with the ClawSec release key.

set -euo pipefail

SKILL_NAME="clawsec-nanoclaw"
VERSION="0.0.6"
REPO="prompt-security/clawsec"
TAG="${SKILL_NAME}-v${VERSION}"
BASE="https://github.com/${REPO}/releases/download/${TAG}"
ZIP_NAME="${SKILL_NAME}-v${VERSION}.zip"
TMP_DIR="$(mktemp -d)"
trap 'rm -rf "$TMP_DIR"' EXIT

RELEASE_PUBKEY_SHA256="711424e4535f84093fefb024cd1ca4ec87439e53907b305b79a631d5befba9c8"

curl -fsSL "$BASE/checksums.json" -o "$TMP_DIR/checksums.json"
curl -fsSL "$BASE/checksums.sig" -o "$TMP_DIR/checksums.sig"
curl -fsSL "$BASE/signing-public.pem" -o "$TMP_DIR/signing-public.pem"
curl -fsSL "$BASE/$ZIP_NAME" -o "$TMP_DIR/$ZIP_NAME"
curl -fsSL "$BASE/SKILL.md" -o "$TMP_DIR/SKILL.md"
curl -fsSL "$BASE/skill.json" -o "$TMP_DIR/skill.json"

ACTUAL_PUBKEY_SHA256="$(openssl pkey -pubin -in "$TMP_DIR/signing-public.pem" -outform DER | shasum -a 256 | awk '{print $1}')"
if [ "$ACTUAL_PUBKEY_SHA256" != "$RELEASE_PUBKEY_SHA256" ]; then
  echo "ERROR: signing-public.pem fingerprint mismatch" >&2
  exit 1
fi

openssl base64 -d -A -in "$TMP_DIR/checksums.sig" -out "$TMP_DIR/checksums.sig.bin"
openssl pkeyutl -verify -rawin -pubin \
  -inkey "$TMP_DIR/signing-public.pem" \
  -sigfile "$TMP_DIR/checksums.sig.bin" \
  -in "$TMP_DIR/checksums.json" >/dev/null

hash_file() {
  if command -v shasum >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    shasum -a 256 "$1" | awk '{print $1}'
  else
    sha256sum "$1" | awk '{print $1}'
  fi
}

verify_manifest_file() {
  asset="$1"
  path="$2"
  expected="$(jq -r --arg asset "$asset" '.files[$asset].sha256 // empty' "$TMP_DIR/checksums.json")"
  if [ -z "$expected" ]; then
    echo "ERROR: checksums.json missing $asset" >&2
    exit 1
  fi
  actual="$(hash_file "$path")"
  if [ "$actual" != "$expected" ]; then
    echo "ERROR: checksum mismatch for $asset" >&2
    exit 1
  fi
}

expected_archive="$(jq -r '.archive.sha256 // empty' "$TMP_DIR/checksums.json")"
if [ -z "$expected_archive" ]; then
  echo "ERROR: checksums.json missing archive.sha256" >&2
  exit 1
fi
actual_archive="$(hash_file "$TMP_DIR/$ZIP_NAME")"
if [ "$actual_archive" != "$expected_archive" ]; then
  echo "ERROR: archive checksum mismatch" >&2
  exit 1
fi

verify_manifest_file "SKILL.md" "$TMP_DIR/SKILL.md"
verify_manifest_file "skill.json" "$TMP_DIR/skill.json"

echo "Signed release manifest, archive, SKILL.md, and skill.json verified."

Only install or extract the archive after this verification succeeds.