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Security audit

short-term-rental-market-research

Security checks for vulnerabilities and agentic risk

Overview

This skill is a disclosed Crawlora Airbnb market-research helper that sends user-scoped queries and an API key to Crawlora, with no hidden persistence, privilege escalation, or destructive behavior found.

Install only if you intend to use Crawlora for Airbnb market research and are comfortable sending queries and your Crawlora API key to Crawlora. Keep use bounded to the locations and sample sizes you choose, and avoid using calendar or repeated searches to infer occupancy, revenue, or suppressed individual listing data.

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
  • Privilege EscalationExcessive Permissions, Sudo/Root Execution, Credential Access
  • MCP Least PrivilegeUnderdeclared Capability, Wildcard Permission, Missing Permission Declaration
  • MCP Tool PoisoningHidden Instructions, Unicode Deception, Parameter Description Injection
  • Prompt InjectionInstruction Override, Hidden Instructions, Exfiltration Commands
Findings (9)

Undeclared Tool Scope

Medium
Category
MCP Least Privilege
Confidence
90% confidence
Finding

The skill instructs use of a shell script but does not declare any explicit tool scope or permissions boundaries. That creates a governance gap: an agent runtime may allow shell/network access more broadly than intended, increasing the chance of unintended command execution or data access when the skill is invoked.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Description-Behavior Mismatch

Medium
Category
Not specified by scanner
Confidence
92% confidence
Finding

The skill advertises a market-research workflow that explicitly avoids occupancy or revenue-style analysis, yet it exposes a per-listing availability calendar endpoint. Calendar access can be used to infer occupancy patterns and booking performance for individual listings, which materially expands the data collection capability beyond the declared scope and creates misuse risk.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Description-Behavior Mismatch

Medium
Category
Not specified by scanner
Confidence
82% confidence
Finding

The manifest describes use of aggregates plus selected live listings, but this endpoint enables broad live Airbnb search over public stays. That broad search capability increases collection scope, facilitates large-scale discovery of listings, and weakens the stated boundary around limited sampling, making the skill easier to repurpose for broader scraping than intended.

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 · SKILL.md (reported line 15)May include surrounding context.

md
#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Crawlora REST helper — minimal, dependency-free (curl only).
# Calls https://api.crawlora.net/api/v1 with your Crawlora API key.
# Get a free key (2,000 credits/mo, no card) at https://crawlora.net?utm_source=github&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=crawlora-skills.
#
# Usage:

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 · reference/endpoints.md (reported line 7)May include surrounding context.

md
#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Crawlora REST helper — minimal, dependency-free (curl only).
# Calls https://api.crawlora.net/api/v1 with your Crawlora API key.
# Get a free key (2,000 credits/mo, no card) at https://crawlora.net?utm_source=github&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=crawlora-skills.
#
# Usage:

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/crawlora.sh (reported line 3)May include surrounding context.

sh
#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Crawlora REST helper — minimal, dependency-free (curl only).
# Calls https://api.crawlora.net/api/v1 with your Crawlora API key.
# Get a free key (2,000 credits/mo, no card) at https://crawlora.net?utm_source=github&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=crawlora-skills.
#
# Usage:

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/crawlora.sh (reported line 20)May include surrounding context.

sh
#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Crawlora REST helper — minimal, dependency-free (curl only).
# Calls https://api.crawlora.net/api/v1 with your Crawlora API key.
# Get a free key (2,000 credits/mo, no card) at https://crawlora.net?utm_source=github&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=crawlora-skills.
#
# Usage:

Sudo/Root Execution

Medium
Category
Privilege Escalation
Confidence
80% confidence
Finding

Commands invoke sudo or root privileges. Verify this elevated access is necessary and justified.

Content

Scanner excerpt · scripts/crawlora.sh (reported line 89)May include surrounding context.

sh
# config supplies the header and is removed automatically on exit.
umask 077
curl_config="$(mktemp "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/crawlora-curl.XXXXXX")"
chmod 600 "$curl_config"
trap 'rm -f "$curl_config"' EXIT
printf 'header = "x-api-key: %s"\n' "$CRAWLORA_API_KEY" >"$curl_config"
auth=(--config "$curl_config")

Missing User Warnings

Low
Category
Not specified by scanner
Confidence
89% confidence
Finding

Line L07 tells users to send requests to an external API and include x-api-key: $CRAWLORA_API_KEY, but the markdown provides no caution about exposing credentials or sending workflow data to a third-party service. For a documentation file, this is a user-facing omission about privacy and system-integrity relevant behavior.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.