Security audit

choco

Security checks across malware telemetry and agentic risk

Overview

This Chocolatey/NSSM repair skill is purpose-aligned, but it normalizes broad administrator-level package and Windows service changes without enough verification, rollback, or scoping guardrails.

Review this skill before installing if you are not comfortable with an agent suggesting administrator-level Chocolatey and Windows service operations. Use it only on specific packages or services you identify, verify downloaded shawl binaries independently, export or record existing service configuration first, and avoid bulk `choco upgrade all -y` unless you have reviewed the pending changes and accepted possible service disruption.

SkillSpector

By NVIDIA

Vulnerability Patterns

MCP Tool PoisoningHidden Instructions, Unicode Deception, Parameter Description Injection
Prompt InjectionInstruction Override, Hidden Instructions, Exfiltration Commands
Data ExfiltrationExternal Transmission, Env Variable Harvesting, File System Enumeration
Privilege EscalationExcessive Permissions, Sudo/Root Execution, Credential Access
Supply ChainUnpinned Dependencies, External Script Fetching, Obfuscated Code

Findings (5)

Intent-Code Divergence

Medium

Confidence: 90% confidence
Finding: The script claims the existing service account should be preserved, but the inline guidance tells operators to replace LocalSystem with a user account for services like Syncthing. That contradiction can cause unauthorized changes to service identity, alter file ownership/ACL behavior, and break least-privilege assumptions during a sensitive migration.

Missing User Warnings

Medium

Confidence: 89% confidence
Finding: The document recommends `gsudo choco upgrade all -y` as a bulk cleanup step but does not explicitly warn that this performs system-wide package upgrades with administrative privileges and may change many installed components. In a troubleshooting skill, that can normalize broad privileged changes for a metadata-only issue, increasing the chance of unintended upgrades, service disruption, or supply-chain exposure from unnecessary package updates.

Missing User Warnings

Medium

Confidence: 88% confidence
Finding: The procedure performs destructive actions by stopping and removing the existing service before proving the replacement registration works, yet it does not present an explicit warning, backup, or rollback requirement immediately before those commands. In operational use, this increases the chance of accidental service deletion, downtime, and loss of service configuration if the migration fails midstream.

Missing User Warnings

Medium

Confidence: 95% confidence
Finding: The instructions tell the operator to download and execute a binary directly from GitHub releases without any integrity verification, signature checking, or trust warning. If the download source, network path, or release asset is compromised, this workflow can lead to execution of attacker-controlled code with elevated privileges during service registration.

Missing User Warnings

Medium

Confidence: 84% confidence
Finding: The documented command sequence elevates to Administrator and stops, reconfigures, and restarts a Windows service, which can directly disrupt running workloads and alter persistent system service configuration. While this appears operationally legitimate for Chocolatey/NSSM maintenance, the lack of an explicit warning, validation guidance, or rollback precautions increases the chance of accidental misuse or unsafe copy-paste execution.

VirusTotal

VirusTotal findings are pending for this skill version.

View on VirusTotal

Static analysis

Detected: suspicious.dangerous_exec

Shell command execution detected (child_process).

Critical

Code: suspicious.dangerous_exec
Location: scripts/nssm-manager.js:22