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Security audit

Nessie

Security checks for vulnerabilities and agentic risk

Overview

This appears to be a legitimate Nessie connector, but it gives the agent broad access to private and team context plus confirmed write, sharing, deletion, and skill-management powers beyond simple search.

Install only if you want OpenClaw to use Nessie as a broad memory and collaboration layer. Treat prompts to save, edit, delete, share, or manage skills as high-impact actions, and confirm only exact previews you understand. Be aware that the Nessie bearer key is stored locally in the OpenClaw config and that the hosted MCP service can access the Nessie data your account is allowed to read.

Vulnerability Patterns
  • Excessive AgencyUnrestricted Tool Access, Autonomous Decision Making, Scope Creep
  • Memory PoisoningPersistent Context Injection, Context Window Stuffing, Memory Manipulation
  • Rogue AgentSelf-Modification, Session Persistence
  • Trigger AbuseOverly Broad Trigger, Shadow Command Trigger, Keyword Baiting Trigger
  • MCP Tool PoisoningHidden Instructions, Unicode Deception, Parameter Description Injection
Findings (22)

Memory Manipulation

High
Category
Memory Poisoning
Confidence
80% confidence
Finding

Skill manipulates agent memory, state, or stored context. Memory corruption can alter personality, override safety rules, or cause unpredictable behavior.

Content

Scanner excerpt · skills/nessie/SKILL.md (reported line 903)May include surrounding context.

md
Context operations should be additive whenever possible:

- Do not delete contexts to "replace" them. If consolidating multiple contexts
  into one, create the new context first, verify it captures all information,
  and only delete originals after explicit user confirmation.
- Use targeted edits for corrections and additions. When correcting or updating

Memory Manipulation

High
Category
Memory Poisoning
Confidence
80% confidence
Finding

Skill manipulates agent memory, state, or stored context. Memory corruption can alter personality, override safety rules, or cause unpredictable behavior.

Content

Scanner excerpt · skills/nessie/SKILL.md (reported line 1610)May include surrounding context.

md
Context operations should be additive whenever possible:

- Do not delete contexts to "replace" them. If consolidating multiple contexts
  into one, create the new context first, verify it captures all information,
  and only delete originals after explicit user confirmation.
- Use targeted edits for corrections and additions. When correcting or updating

Ae1

High
Category
analysis-evasion
Confidence
100% confidence
Finding

Referenced artifact was not completely inspected

Content

Scanner excerpt · skills/nessie/SKILL.md (reported line 992)May include surrounding context.

md
proposed `SKILL.md`, or a new skill's proposed instructions. When the user asks

Ae1

High
Category
analysis-evasion
Confidence
100% confidence
Finding

Referenced artifact was not completely inspected

Content

Scanner excerpt · skills/nessie/SKILL.md (reported line 996)May include surrounding context.

md
proposed `SKILL.md`, or a new skill's proposed instructions. When the user asks

Ae1

High
Category
analysis-evasion
Confidence
100% confidence
Finding

Referenced artifact was not completely inspected

Content

Scanner excerpt · skills/nessie/SKILL.md (reported line 1005)May include surrounding context.

md
proposed `SKILL.md`, or a new skill's proposed instructions. When the user asks

Ae1

High
Category
analysis-evasion
Confidence
100% confidence
Finding

Referenced artifact was not completely inspected

Content

Scanner excerpt · skills/nessie/SKILL.md (reported line 1017)May include surrounding context.

md
proposed `SKILL.md`, or a new skill's proposed instructions. When the user asks

Ae1

High
Category
analysis-evasion
Confidence
100% confidence
Finding

Referenced artifact was not completely inspected

Content

Scanner excerpt · skills/nessie/SKILL.md (reported line 1028)May include surrounding context.

md
proposed `SKILL.md`, or a new skill's proposed instructions. When the user asks

Ae1

High
Category
analysis-evasion
Confidence
100% confidence
Finding

Referenced artifact was not completely inspected

Content

Scanner excerpt · skills/nessie/SKILL.md (reported line 1032)May include surrounding context.

md
proposed `SKILL.md`, or a new skill's proposed instructions. When the user asks

Ae1

High
Category
analysis-evasion
Confidence
100% confidence
Finding

Referenced artifact was not completely inspected

Content

Scanner excerpt · skills/nessie/SKILL.md (reported line 1036)May include surrounding context.

md
proposed `SKILL.md`, or a new skill's proposed instructions. When the user asks

Ae1

High
Category
analysis-evasion
Confidence
100% confidence
Finding

Referenced artifact was not completely inspected

Content

Scanner excerpt · skills/nessie/SKILL.md (reported line 1047)May include surrounding context.

md
proposed `SKILL.md`, or a new skill's proposed instructions. When the user asks

Ae1

High
Category
analysis-evasion
Confidence
100% confidence
Finding

Referenced artifact was not completely inspected

Content

Scanner excerpt · skills/nessie/SKILL.md (reported line 1052)May include surrounding context.

md
proposed `SKILL.md`, or a new skill's proposed instructions. When the user asks

Vague Triggers

Medium
Category
Not specified by scanner
Confidence
91% confidence
Finding

The invocation scope is extremely broad, covering prior work, decisions, projects, notes, relationships, and anything previously discussed or researched. Because the skill also documents powerful read, write, and admin behaviors, broad triggering increases the chance of unnecessary access to sensitive personal/team data and expands the attack surface for prompt steering.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

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 · skills/nessie/SKILL.md (reported line 33)May include surrounding context.

md
available and, with their agreement, run
`openclaw plugins update @nessielabs/nessie-openclaw` (or the matching
`openclaw skills update` for a ClawHub skill install). Do not download or
overwrite the plugin files yourself — the host command owns the install. If
the user declines, do not mention the update again until the remote version
changes. The MCP connector updates itself server-side and never needs this
check.

Autonomous Decision Making

Medium
Category
Excessive Agency
Confidence
80% confidence
Finding

Skill enables autonomous high-impact decisions without human-in-the-loop verification. Critical operations (destructive commands, financial transactions, data deletion) should require explicit user confirmation.

Content

Scanner excerpt · skills/nessie/SKILL.md (reported line 48)May include surrounding context.

openclaw nessie init --email --code

text

Do not ask the user for an existing Nessie API key or tell them to configure
one manually. Do not ask the user to run a device-code login flow for this
plugin.

Autonomous Decision Making

Medium
Category
Excessive Agency
Confidence
80% confidence
Finding

Skill enables autonomous high-impact decisions without human-in-the-loop verification. Critical operations (destructive commands, financial transactions, data deletion) should require explicit user confirmation.

Content

Scanner excerpt · skills/nessie/SKILL.md (reported line 49)May include surrounding context.

openclaw nessie init --email --code

text

Do not ask the user for an existing Nessie API key or tell them to configure
one manually. Do not ask the user to run a device-code login flow for this
plugin.

Description-Behavior Mismatch

Medium
Category
Not specified by scanner
Confidence
98% confidence
Finding

The skill is described as a search-and-read interface, but its instructions expose a very broad set of mutation and administrative capabilities including context edits, profile updates, sharing changes, skill management, and deletions. This violates least privilege and increases the chance that a host agent invokes sensitive operations under a benign-looking skill, leading to data loss, permission changes, or unintended persistence.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Context-Inappropriate Capability

Medium
Category
Not specified by scanner
Confidence
96% confidence
Finding

Embedding full skill-platform creation, editing, import, move, remove, and installation guidance inside a library-search skill creates unnecessary access to agent-behavior modification primitives. If followed by an agent, this could enable persistent changes to skills or bundles that affect future sessions and potentially all collaborators or subscribers.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Context-Inappropriate Capability

Medium
Category
Not specified by scanner
Confidence
97% confidence
Finding

Sharing-management operations are unrelated to the advertised read/search purpose and allow modification of who can access user data. Even with confirmation language, bundling these operations into a broadly-invoked reading skill raises the risk of accidental or socially engineered exposure of contexts, sources, skills, or sessions to other people or teams.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Autonomous Decision Making

Medium
Category
Excessive Agency
Confidence
75% confidence
Finding

Skill enables autonomous high-impact decisions without human-in-the-loop verification. Critical operations (destructive commands, financial transactions, data deletion) should require explicit user confirmation.

Content

Scanner excerpt · skills/nessie/SKILL.md (reported line 1446)May include surrounding context.

md
When the user says a result is wrong, outdated, speculative, misattributed, or
nonliteral without naming a modality, infer the matching value, show the
excerpt and `sliceId`, and proactively offer to apply it; do not call the tool
until the user approves. There is intentionally no confirmation field in this
tool's input schema.

## Writing

Context-Inappropriate Capability

Medium
Category
Not specified by scanner
Confidence
97% confidence
Finding

Conversation deletion is a destructive capability that contradicts the skill's stated search-and-read purpose. Including deletion guidance in a commonly triggered retrieval skill makes accidental or manipulated data removal more plausible, especially because transcripts are synced source material and removal affects future availability.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Vague Triggers

Low
Category
Not specified by scanner
Confidence
84% confidence
Finding

The phrase about using Nessie for prior work is vague and does not define clear boundaries for non-activation. Ambiguity matters here because the skill is large and capable; an over-eager host might invoke it on many ordinary prompts, causing unnecessary retrieval from personal or shared memory sources.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Intent-Code Divergence

Low
Category
Not specified by scanner
Confidence
90% confidence
Finding

Earlier sections instruct the agent to offer and perform write-back when durable knowledge emerges, including updating contexts and profiles. Later, the OpenClaw-specific policy says this host overrides that guidance and requires explicit confirmation before any mutation, creating a direct documentation-level contradiction about default behavior.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Endor dependency reachability

Checked Nov 8, 2026 · 1:02 PM UTC

Not analyzed: Endor report-only scanning is not enabled for this plugin.