Security audit

Phy Citation Checker

Security checks for vulnerabilities and agentic risk

Overview

This citation-checking skill behaves as advertised, but users should know it sends bibliography metadata to public academic APIs.

Install only if you are comfortable sending citation titles, DOIs, and related bibliography metadata to CrossRef, Semantic Scholar, and OpenAlex. Avoid using it on unpublished, embargoed, client-confidential, or internal bibliographies unless that external API use is allowed.

SkillSpector

Vulnerability Patterns

Data ExfiltrationExternal Transmission, Env Variable Harvesting, File System Enumeration
MCP Least PrivilegeUnderdeclared Capability, Wildcard Permission, Missing Permission Declaration
Prompt InjectionInstruction Override, Hidden Instructions, Exfiltration Commands
Privilege EscalationExcessive Permissions, Sudo/Root Execution, Credential Access
Supply ChainUnpinned Dependencies, External Script Fetching, Obfuscated Code

Findings (2)

Lp3

Medium

Category: MCP Least Privilege
Confidence: 90% confidence
Finding: The skill advertises and depends on Python plus the requests package, and its documented workflow reads local .bib files and sends citation metadata to external services, yet no permissions are declared. This creates a transparency and policy-enforcement gap: users and platforms may not realize the skill can access local files and make outbound network requests, which can lead to unintended data exposure or bypass of least-privilege controls.

Missing User Warnings

Medium

Confidence: 95% confidence
Finding: The skill repeatedly describes verification against CrossRef, Semantic Scholar, and OpenAlex but does not clearly warn that citation contents from local bibliography files are sent to third-party APIs. Bibliographies can contain unpublished manuscripts, internal report titles, author lists, or other sensitive research metadata, so silent transmission may leak confidential or embargoed information.

Static analysis

No suspicious patterns detected.