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Security audit

ADS-B Overhead

Security checks for vulnerabilities and agentic risk

Overview

This skill is a coherent aircraft-overhead alert helper, with disclosed cron, local state, WhatsApp notification, and optional photo lookup behavior.

Before installing, confirm the ADS-B feed host, home coordinates, WhatsApp target, and cron interval are yours. Disable photo lookup if you do not want aircraft hex identifiers sent to Planespotters or thumbnails stored locally, and review the ~/.clawdbot/adsb-overhead directory periodically for state, logs, and cached photos.

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
  • Excessive AgencyUnrestricted Tool Access, Autonomous Decision Making, Scope Creep
  • Rogue AgentSelf-Modification, Session Persistence
  • Behavioral ASTexec() Call, eval() Call, Dynamic Import
Findings (10)

Session Persistence

Medium
Category
Rogue Agent
Confidence
60% confidence
Finding

Skill establishes unauthorized persistence across sessions via cron jobs, startup scripts, or state files. Session persistence allows an attacker to maintain access beyond the current interaction.

Content

Scanner excerpt · README.md (reported line 106)May include surrounding context.

  1. Copy the example config and edit it:
bash
mkdir -p ~/.clawdbot/adsb-overhead
cp skills/public/adsb-overhead/config.example.json ~/.clawdbot/adsb-overhead/config.json
nano ~/.clawdbot/adsb-overhead/config.json
chmod 600 ~/.clawdbot/adsb-overhead/config.json

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 · README.md (reported line 109)May include surrounding context.

mkdir -p ~/.clawdbot/adsb-overhead cp skills/public/adsb-overhead/config.example.json ~/.clawdbot/adsb-overhead/config.json nano ~/.clawdbot/adsb-overhead/config.json chmod 600 ~/.clawdbot/adsb-overhead/config.json

text

2) Add a user crontab entry (runs every minute):

Undeclared Tool Scope

Medium
Category
MCP Least Privilege
Confidence
91% confidence
Finding

The skill instructs execution of a Python script that uses shell execution, network access to a local TCP ADS-B feed, and persistent file writes, but the manifest does not declare any explicit tool scope or permission boundaries. In an agent environment, missing scope declarations can allow broader-than-intended tool access and make it harder to enforce least privilege or safely review what the skill is allowed to do.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

subprocess module call

Medium
Category
Dangerous Code Execution
Confidence
70% confidence
Finding

subprocess module calls execute external commands. Without careful input validation, this enables command injection.

Content

Scanner excerpt · scripts/adsb_overhead_notify.py (reported line 137)May include surrounding context.

python
_expand(photo_cfg.get("dir") or str(Path.home() / ".clawdbot" / "adsb-overhead" / "photos")),
        ]

    p = subprocess.run(cmd, capture_output=True, text=True)
    if p.returncode != 0:
        raise RuntimeError(f"checker failed ({p.returncode}): {p.stderr.strip()}")

subprocess module call

Medium
Category
Dangerous Code Execution
Confidence
70% confidence
Finding

subprocess module calls execute external commands. Without careful input validation, this enables command injection.

Content

Scanner excerpt · scripts/adsb_overhead_notify.py (reported line 188)May include surrounding context.

python
_expand(photo_cfg.get("dir") or str(Path.home() / ".clawdbot" / "adsb-overhead" / "photos")),
        ]

    p = subprocess.run(cmd, capture_output=True, text=True)
    if p.returncode != 0:
        raise RuntimeError(f"checker failed ({p.returncode}): {p.stderr.strip()}")

Description-Behavior Mismatch

Medium
Category
Not specified by scanner
Confidence
91% confidence
Finding

The skill is presented as using a local ADS-B feed, but it optionally contacts third-party services to retrieve aircraft photos and embeds links to external tracking sites. This creates a privacy and data-flow discrepancy: queried ICAO hex identifiers and user activity may be exposed to external providers, which is especially sensitive for a local monitoring/notification workflow.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

External Transmission

Medium
Category
Data Exfiltration
Confidence
93% confidence
Finding

This code transmits aircraft ICAO hex identifiers to api.planespotters.net, creating an external data disclosure path not necessary for core local-feed detection. In a local monitoring skill, this can leak monitored aircraft interest patterns and operational metadata to a third party whenever photo lookup is enabled.

Content

Scanner excerpt · scripts/sbs_overhead_check.py (reported line 147)May include surrounding context.

python
h = hex_.strip().upper()
    if not h:
        return None
    url = f"https://api.planespotters.net/pub/photos/hex/{h}"
    try:
        data = fetch_json(url, timeout_s=timeout_s)
        return _planespotters_pick_photo_url_sized(data, size=size)

Context-Inappropriate Capability

Medium
Category
Not specified by scanner
Confidence
92% confidence
Finding

The script can download and persist third-party images locally, which expands the skill's capabilities beyond simple local ADS-B monitoring. Even with basic allowlisting and size checks, this introduces unnecessary external content retrieval and storage, increasing privacy, supply-chain, and disk-consumption risk in a cron-executed automation context.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Natural-Language Policy Violations

Low
Category
Not specified by scanner
Confidence
89% confidence
Finding

The config sets "tz" to "Europe/London", which imposes a specific locale setting in natural-language/policy terms. In this file there is no accompanying indication that the timezone is user-selectable, optional, or justified as region-specific, so it may violate the requirement to avoid forcing a locale without user opt-in.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Missing User Warnings

Low
Category
Not specified by scanner
Confidence
87% confidence
Finding

The save() function creates parent directories and writes the updated JSON config to disk, replacing the existing file contents. Although the module docstring mentions updating settings, there is no user-facing prompt, warning, or runtime disclosure before performing this file write.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Static analysis

Detected: suspicious.install_untrusted_source

Install source points to URL shortener or raw IP.

Warn
Code
suspicious.install_untrusted_source
Location
config.example.json:21