T09 · Insecure Skill Coding Practices
Warning
- Location
- sources.md:69
- Finding
- Plaintext HTTP Used for RSS Feed Retrieval## Vulnerability Details **File Location**: `sources.md:69` **Vulnerability Type**: Unencrypted external content retrieval **Risk Level**: Medium ### Vulnerable Code ```text BBC World: http://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/world/rss.xml ``` ### Technical Analysis The configured BBC World RSS feed uses plaintext HTTP rather than HTTPS. HTTP provides neither transport confidentiality nor server authenticity, and it does not protect content integrity. An attacker able to intercept or modify network traffic—such as a malicious wireless access point, compromised proxy, or on-path network operator—could replace RSS headlines, summaries, or article links. Because the retrieved feed is subsequently treated as news content, tampered data could be incorporated into briefings or cause the agent to follow attacker-selected links. This issue does not directly grant additional operating-system privileges. Its security significance is the ability to manipulate externally retrieved data consumed by the agent. ### Attack Path 1. The skill requests the configured BBC World RSS feed over HTTP. 2. An on-path attacker intercepts the unencrypted request or response. 3. The attacker alters a headline, article summary, or destination URL in the RSS response. 4. The skill processes the modified feed as legitimate news. 5. The manipulated story is displayed to the user or the attacker-controlled link is fetched during a deep dive. 6. If attacker-controlled content is fetched, it may also interact with the skill's lack of explicit indirect prompt-injection defenses. ### Impact Assessment A successful attacker could: - Inject fabricated or misleading news into generated briefings. - Substitute legitimate article links with attacker-controlled destinations. - Influence summarization and source-quality decisions. - Introduce malicious content into the agent's processing context. Exploitation is limited to attackers capable of influencing t ...[truncated 142 chars]
- Remediation
- ## Remediation Suggestions - Replace the HTTP feed URL with its verified HTTPS equivalent. - Require HTTPS for all configured RSS feeds and article links. - Reject redirects that downgrade an HTTPS request to HTTP. - Validate the final URL after every redirect. - Apply strict connection timeouts, response-size limits, and content-type validation. - Treat feed headlines, summaries, and links as untrusted input regardless of transport security. - Consider pinning approved feed hosts or maintaining an allowlist for default sources.