Back to skill

Security audit

RSS Reader

Security checks for vulnerabilities and agentic risk

Overview

This RSS reader mostly matches its stated purpose, but it fetches arbitrary feed URLs from the host environment without internal-network safeguards and prints remote feed text unsanitized.

Install only if you trust the feed URLs you will add and the environment does not expose sensitive localhost, private-network, or cloud metadata services to this process. Prefer adding URL validation, redirect limits, private-address blocking, response-size limits, and terminal-output sanitization before broad use or scheduled checks.

Vulnerability Patterns
  • Insecure Skill Coding PracticesFinds exploitable flaws such as hardcoded secrets or command injection
  • 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
Findings (2)

T09 · Insecure Skill Coding Practices

Error
Location
scripts/rss.js:41
Finding

Arbitrary Feed URLs Enable Server-Side Request Forgery

Content
View full analysis
{ const client = url.startsWith('https') ? https : http; const req = client.get(url, { headers: { 'User-Agent': 'Clawdbot-RSS/1.0' }, timeout: 10000 }, (res) => { if (res.statusCode >= 300 && res.statusCode < 400 && res.headers.location) { // Follow redirect return fetchUrl(res.headers.location).then(resolve).catch(reject); } if (res.statusCode !== 200) { reject(new Error(`HTTP ${res.statusCode}`)); return; } let data = ''; res.on('data', chunk => data += chunk); res.on('end', () => resolve(data)); }); req.on('error', reject); req.on('timeout', () => { req.destroy(); reject(new Error('Request timeout')); }); }); } ``` The user-controlled URL reaches this function during feed validation: ```javascript const xml = await fetchUrl(url); ``` ### Technical Analysis The `add` command accepts a user-provided feed URL and passes it to `fetchUrl()` without validating its destination. Stored feed URLs are subsequently fetched by the `check` command as well. The implementation does not: - Reject loopback, private, link-local, or multicast IP addresses. - Prevent access to cloud instance metadata endpoints. - Resolve hostnames and validate all returned IP addresses. - Revalidate the destination after redirects. - Impose a maximum redirect count. - Restrict destinations to a trusted host allowlist. An attacker can therefore cause the process to issue HTTP requests to services reachable from the host running the Skill. A public URL can also redirect to an internal address, bypassing valid ...[truncated 2023 chars]
Remediation
View remediation

T09 · Insecure Skill Coding Practices

Warning
Location
scripts/rss.js:305
Finding

Untrusted Feed Content Is Emitted Without Terminal Control-Sequence Sanitization

Content
View full analysis
Remediation
View remediation
Vulnerability Patterns
  • Data ExfiltrationExternal Transmission, Env Variable Harvesting, File System Enumeration
  • Trigger AbuseOverly Broad Trigger, Shadow Command Trigger, Keyword Baiting Trigger
  • Prompt InjectionInstruction Override, Hidden Instructions, Exfiltration Commands
  • Privilege EscalationExcessive Permissions, Sudo/Root Execution, Credential Access
  • Supply ChainUnpinned Dependencies, External Script Fetching, Obfuscated Code
Findings (15)

Ae1

High
Category
analysis-evasion
Confidence
100% confidence
Finding

Referenced artifact was not completely inspected

Content

Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 14)May include surrounding context.

md
node scripts/rss.js add "https://example.com/feed.xml" --category tech

Ae1

High
Category
analysis-evasion
Confidence
100% confidence
Finding

Referenced artifact was not completely inspected

Content

Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 17)May include surrounding context.

md
node scripts/rss.js add "https://example.com/feed.xml" --category tech

Ae1

High
Category
analysis-evasion
Confidence
100% confidence
Finding

Referenced artifact was not completely inspected

Content

Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 20)May include surrounding context.

md
node scripts/rss.js add "https://example.com/feed.xml" --category tech

Ae1

High
Category
analysis-evasion
Confidence
100% confidence
Finding

Referenced artifact was not completely inspected

Content

Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 23)May include surrounding context.

md
node scripts/rss.js add "https://example.com/feed.xml" --category tech

Ae1

High
Category
analysis-evasion
Confidence
100% confidence
Finding

Referenced artifact was not completely inspected

Content

Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 26)May include surrounding context.

md
node scripts/rss.js add "https://example.com/feed.xml" --category tech

Ae1

High
Category
analysis-evasion
Confidence
100% confidence
Finding

Referenced artifact was not completely inspected

Content

Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 59)May include surrounding context.

md
node scripts/rss.js add "https://example.com/feed.xml" --category tech

Ae1

High
Category
analysis-evasion
Confidence
100% confidence
Finding

Referenced artifact was not completely inspected

Content

Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 60)May include surrounding context.

md
node scripts/rss.js add "https://example.com/feed.xml" --category tech

Ae1

High
Category
analysis-evasion
Confidence
100% confidence
Finding

Referenced artifact was not completely inspected

Content

Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 61)May include surrounding context.

md
node scripts/rss.js add "https://example.com/feed.xml" --category tech

Ae1

High
Category
analysis-evasion
Confidence
100% confidence
Finding

Referenced artifact was not completely inspected

Content

Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 64)May include surrounding context.

md
node scripts/rss.js add "https://example.com/feed.xml" --category tech

Ae1

High
Category
analysis-evasion
Confidence
100% confidence
Finding

Referenced artifact was not completely inspected

Content

Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 70)May include surrounding context.

md
node scripts/rss.js add "https://example.com/feed.xml" --category tech

Ae1

High
Category
analysis-evasion
Confidence
100% confidence
Finding

Referenced artifact was not completely inspected

Content

Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 76)May include surrounding context.

md
node scripts/rss.js add "https://example.com/feed.xml" --category tech

Ae1

High
Category
analysis-evasion
Confidence
100% confidence
Finding

Referenced artifact was not completely inspected

Content

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

md
node scripts/rss.js add "https://example.com/feed.xml" --category tech

Ae1

High
Category
analysis-evasion
Confidence
100% confidence
Finding

Referenced artifact was not completely inspected

Content

Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 141)May include surrounding context.

md
node scripts/rss.js add "https://example.com/feed.xml" --category tech

Vague Triggers

Medium
Category
Not specified by scanner
Confidence
89% confidence
Finding

The manifest description and opening summary describe very broad usage such as monitoring 'any feed source' and using the skill for competitors, news, content ideas, or a personal aggregator, but they do not define specific activation phrases or exclusion conditions. In markdown/manifest context, this can make invocation criteria overly broad and increase the chance of unintended triggering from common research-related requests.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Missing User Warnings

Low
Category
Not specified by scanner
Confidence
86% confidence
Finding

This code writes feed configuration to a local file and makes outbound HTTP(S) requests to user-supplied feed URLs, but it does not disclose that URLs will be persisted under the data directory or that checking feeds transmits requests to remote servers. While these actions are central to an RSS reader, the file contains no explicit warning or notice about the persistence and network behavior.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Static analysis

No suspicious patterns detected.