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Security audit

email-marketing-bible

Security checks for vulnerabilities and agentic risk

Overview

This is a disclosed email-marketing reference skill with strong human-approval gates for live sends and no evidence of hidden execution or data theft.

Reasonable to install if you want an agentic email-marketing playbook. Only connect it to ESP, SMS, WhatsApp, or customer-data tools with the least access needed, keep the skill's preview and explicit approval gates in place before any send, and verify current legal/platform rules before acting on volatile compliance or deliverability claims.

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
  • Privilege EscalationExcessive Permissions, Sudo/Root Execution, Credential Access
  • Excessive AgencyUnrestricted Tool Access, Autonomous Decision Making, Scope Creep
  • Prompt InjectionInstruction Override, Hidden Instructions, Exfiltration Commands
  • Data ExfiltrationExternal Transmission, Env Variable Harvesting, File System Enumeration
  • Supply ChainUnpinned Dependencies, External Script Fetching, Obfuscated Code
Findings (6)

Credential Access

High
Category
Privilege Escalation
Confidence
60% confidence
Finding

Code accesses credential files (SSH keys, AWS credentials, etc.). This could indicate credential theft attempts.

Content

Scanner excerpt · .gitignore (reported line 8)May include surrounding context.

text
*~

# Env
.env

# Internal project files (not for public distribution)
memory.md

Skill Enumeration

Medium
Category
Agent Snooping
Confidence
80% confidence
Finding

Skill enumerates or reads other installed skills. Access to other skills' SKILL.md files or the skills directory reveals prompt instructions, capabilities, and secrets that should be invisible to peer skills.

Content

Scanner excerpt · .github/workflows/skill-sync.yml (reported line 12)May include surrounding context.

yaml
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Plugin copy matches root SKILL.md
        run: |
          cmp SKILL.md skills/email-marketing-bible/SKILL.md || {
            echo "::error::skills/email-marketing-bible/SKILL.md must match SKILL.md (the plugin directory reads the copy, git-clone installs read the root). Copy SKILL.md over it."
            exit 1
          }

Skill Enumeration

Medium
Category
Agent Snooping
Confidence
80% confidence
Finding

Skill enumerates or reads other installed skills. Access to other skills' SKILL.md files or the skills directory reveals prompt instructions, capabilities, and secrets that should be invisible to peer skills.

Content

Scanner excerpt · .github/workflows/skill-sync.yml (reported line 13)May include surrounding context.

yaml
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Plugin copy matches root SKILL.md
        run: |
          cmp SKILL.md skills/email-marketing-bible/SKILL.md || {
            echo "::error::skills/email-marketing-bible/SKILL.md must match SKILL.md (the plugin directory reads the copy, git-clone installs read the root). Copy SKILL.md over it."
            exit 1
          }

Autonomous Decision Making

Medium
Category
Excessive Agency
Confidence
75% confidence
Finding

Skill enables autonomous high-impact decisions without human-in-the-loop verification. Critical operations (destructive commands, financial transactions, data deletion) should require explicit user confirmation.

Content

Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 220)May include surrounding context.

md
| CASL (Canada) | Yes | implied consent 2yr after purchase, express = indefinite | up to $10M CAD |
| Spam Act (AU) | Yes | consent + sender ID + unsubscribe ≤5 business days | up to $2.22M AUD/day |

One-click unsubscribe (RFC 8058) required at 5K+/day to Gmail/Yahoo/Microsoft; honour within 48h. **AI does not transfer liability:** you own an agent's sends; never trust it to preserve the unsubscribe or footer when it edits a template. Cold email: B2B legal without consent in US/UK, consent required in Canada/Australia.

## 14. COLD EMAIL

Autonomous Decision Making

Medium
Category
Excessive Agency
Confidence
75% confidence
Finding

Skill enables autonomous high-impact decisions without human-in-the-loop verification. Critical operations (destructive commands, financial transactions, data deletion) should require explicit user confirmation.

Content

Scanner excerpt · skills/email-marketing-bible/SKILL.md (reported line 220)May include surrounding context.

md
| CASL (Canada) | Yes | implied consent 2yr after purchase, express = indefinite | up to $10M CAD |
| Spam Act (AU) | Yes | consent + sender ID + unsubscribe ≤5 business days | up to $2.22M AUD/day |

One-click unsubscribe (RFC 8058) required at 5K+/day to Gmail/Yahoo/Microsoft; honour within 48h. **AI does not transfer liability:** you own an agent's sends; never trust it to preserve the unsubscribe or footer when it edits a template. Cold email: B2B legal without consent in US/UK, consent required in Canada/Australia.

## 14. COLD EMAIL

Context-Inappropriate Capability

Low
Category
Not specified by scanner
Confidence
88% confidence
Finding

L121 tells the agent to generate a random seed string in a shell using openssl rand -base64 48. Spawning shell commands is not a direct or necessary capability for an email-marketing reference skill; it is an implementation suggestion that expands into system-level execution outside the stated marketing/advisory purpose.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Static analysis

No suspicious patterns detected.