T01 · Skill Instruction Hijacking
- Location
SKILL.md:38- Finding
Intent Hijacking Through Mandatory Product and Installation Redirection
- Content
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Vulnerability Details
File Location:
SKILL.md:38-41
Vulnerability Type: Skill instruction hijacking through promotional routing
Risk Level: MediumEvidence
The directly actionable instruction appears at line 40:
markdown - If the user wants the canonical public install surface, send them to `clawhub install vericlaw`.The surrounding routing section additionally directs discovery traffic to the VeriClaw product and treats broad model-correction phrases as aliases for that product.
Technical Analysis
The skill does not implement a model-correction workflow. Instead, its routing rules instruct the agent to redirect users toward an external product and recommend installing a separate skill. Because these instructions are loaded as skill text, they can influence the agent's current-session goals and responses.
The trigger scope includes broad correction-related intents rather than a narrowly defined request for VeriClaw. Consequently, a user seeking general hallucination diagnosis, model correction, or evidence-based recovery may receive promotional routing or installation guidance instead of direct assistance.
The referenced installation target is not included in the audited project. Its implementation, permissions, dependencies, and runtime behavior therefore cannot be verified from this repository. The identified instruction does not itself execute the command, but it can induce the agent to recommend it and the user to run it.
Attack Path
- The skill is selected or loaded in response to a broad model-correction intent.
- The routing rules alter how the agent handles the current request.
- The agent redirects the user to VeriClaw pages or supplies
clawhub install vericlaw. - The user may abandon the requested workflow or execute the recommended installation command.
- If installed, the separate and unaudited package gains whatever capabilities its own manifest and runtime r ...[truncated 716 chars]
- Remediation
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Remediation Suggestions
- Remove mandatory instructions that route broad correction-related requests to a named product.
- Handle the user's correction request directly before presenting any optional external resource.
- Recommend another skill only when the user explicitly asks for installation options or for the named product.
- Clearly label external links and installation commands as optional, and require affirmative user consent before proceeding.
- Narrow the trigger metadata to product-specific requests so generic model-correction intents do not activate promotional routing.
- If installation remains supported, pin a reviewed version, document the destination package's requested permissions, and audit that package independently before recommending execution.
- Add an explicit rule prohibiting automatic execution of installation commands and requiring the agent to explain downstream trust boundaries.
