Skill Safety Verifier

Security-first skill vetting for AI agents. Use before installing any skill from ClawdHub, GitHub, or other sources. Checks for red flags, permission scope,...

Security-first skill vetting for AI agents

Overview

Skill Safety Verifier 是一个安全优先的技能审查工具，用于在安装任何外部技能前进行安全检查。

Why This Matters

AI agents run with elevated permissions and can:

• Execute arbitrary commands
• Access file systems
• Make network requests
• Read environment variables

Unvetted skills = security risk

---

Workflow

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                        SKILL SAFETY VERIFIER FLOW                       │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

    User Request
         │
         ▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│  1. Fetch Skill    │
│  - Clone/Extract    │
│  - Read SKILL.md    │
└─────────────────────┘
         │
         ▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│  2. Parallel Scan  │
│  ┌───────────────┐  │
│  │ Socket Check  │  │  ← Check outbound connections
│  └───────────────┘  │
│  ┌───────────────┐  │
│  │ Vuln Scan     │  │  ← Query GitHub Advisory API
│  └───────────────┘  │
│  ┌───────────────┐  │
│  │ Code Patterns │  │  ← Scan dangerous functions
│  └───────────────┘  │
└─────────────────────┘
         │
         ▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│  3. Risk Score     │
│  - Calculate total │  ← Network + Vuln + Permission
│  - Classify level  │
└─────────────────────┘
         │
         ▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│  4. Present Result │
│  - Risk Radar      │
│  - Warnings       │
│  - Recommendation │
└─────────────────────┘
         │
         ▼
    User Decision

---

Core Responsibilities

1. Risk Assessment

Evaluate skills across three dimensions:

Dimension	What to Check	Risk Level
Socket/Network	Outbound connections, API calls	Critical
Code Quality	Snyk vulnerabilities, dependencies	High
Permissions	File access, command execution	High

2. Red Flag Detection

Common suspicious patterns:

red_flags:
  network:
    - "Suspicious domain (non-standard TLD)"
    - "Hardcoded IP addresses"
    - "DNS lookups to unknown domains"
    - "Excessive outbound connections"
  
  execution:
    - "os.system() / subprocess without sanitization"
    - "eval() / exec() usage"
    - "Shell injection patterns"
    - "Download and execute code"
  
  data:
    - "Reading sensitive env vars"
    - "Exfiltrating files"
    - "Logging keystrokes"
    - "Credential harvesting"
  
  permissions:
    - "Overbroad file permissions"
    - "sudo/root without prompt"
    - "Full disk access requests"

3. Risk Classification

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    RISK CLASSIFICATION                      │
├──────────────┬──────────────┬─────────────────────────────┤
│    Level     │    Score     │        Action               │
├──────────────┼──────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│   🟢 Safe    │    0-10      │  Install & use freely       │
│   🟡 Low     │    11-30     │  Install with caution       │
│   🟠 Medium  │    31-60     │  Review code, then decide   │
│   🔴 High    │    61-100    │  Do not install            │
└──────────────┴──────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘

---

Assessment Criteria

Socket/Network Risk

Alert Count	Risk Score
0	0
1-2	10
3-5	25
>5	50

Code/Vulnerability Risk

Severity	Score
Critical	25
High	15
Medium	10
Low	5

GitHub Advisory API Integration

使用 GitHub Advisory API 获取真实漏洞数据，不阻塞安装流程。

API: https://api.github.com/advisories
认证: 无需 Token（匿名 60次/小时）
TTL: 本地缓存 24 小时

流程:

1. 用户触发安装 → 立即返回 "安检中..."
2. 后台并行: 克隆代码 + 查缓存 + 异步请求 API
3. 缓存命中? Yes → 直接返回 | No → 等 API (超时 5s)
4. 合并 Socket分析 + 代码模式 + 漏洞数据 → 呈现

Permission Scope Risk

Scope	Score
Read-only	0
Network calls	10
File write	15
Command execution	25
Full system access	50

---

Workflow

User: "Install skill X"
         │
         ▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│  1. Fetch Skill    │
│  - Clone/Extract    │
│  - Read SKILL.md    │
└─────────────────────┘
         │
         ▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│  2. Security Scan  │
│  - Socket alerts    │
│  - Snyk vulnerabilities│
│  - Code patterns    │
└─────────────────────┘
         │
         ▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│  3. Risk Score     │
│  - Calculate total │
│  - Classify level  │
└─────────────────────┘
         │
         ▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│  4. Present Result │
│  - Risk level      │
│  - Warnings        │
│  - Recommendation  │
└─────────────────────┘
         │
         ▼
User Decision

---

Output Format

Progress Bar Style (Recommended)

✅ weather - Risk Assessment

┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  📊 Risk Radar                          │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Network      [░░░░░░░░░░░]  0/50  🟢 │
│  Vulnerabil. [░░░░░░░░░░░░]  0/25  🟢 │
│  Permissions  [░░░░░░░░░░░░]  0/50  🟢 │
│  ─────────────────────────────────────  │
│  TOTAL        [░░░░░░░░░░░░]  0/100 🟢 │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Dependencies: curl, wttr.in            │
│  Recommendation: ✅ Safe to install     │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘

Implementation Logic

# Progress bar rendering
def render_bar(score, max_score, label, width=10):
    percent = score / max_score
    filled = int(percent * width)
    bar = '█' * filled + '░' * (width - filled)
    emoji = get_risk_emoji(percent)
    return f"  {label:<12} [{bar}] {score}/{max_score} {emoji}"

# Color mapping
def get_risk_emoji(percent):
    if percent < 0.2: return '🟢'
    if percent < 0.5: return '🟡'
    if percent < 0.8: return '🟠'
    return '🔴'

Safe Skill

✅ skill-name - Risk Assessment Complete

┌─────────────────────────────────┐
│  🟢 LOW RISK                   │
│  Socket Alerts: 0               │
│  Snyk Issues: 0                  │
│  Code Patterns: Clean            │
└─────────────────────────────────┘

Recommendation: Safe to install and use.

What's included:
- Feature A
- Feature B

Medium Risk Skill

⚠️ skill-name - Risk Assessment Complete

┌─────────────────────────────────┐
│  🟠 MEDIUM RISK                │
│  Socket Alerts: 2               │
│  Snyk Issues: 1 (Medium)        │
│  Notes: Network calls detected   │
└─────────────────────────────────┘

Warnings:
- Makes API calls to external service
- Stores credentials in config file

Recommendation: Review the code before installing.

High Risk Skill

🚫 skill-name - Risk Assessment Complete

┌─────────────────────────────────┐
│  🔴 HIGH RISK                   │
│  Socket Alerts: 5               │
│  Snyk Issues: 3 (Critical)      │
│  Red Flags: Command execution    │
└─────────────────────────────────┘

🚨 DO NOT INSTALL

Reasons:
1. Multiple critical vulnerabilities found
2. Executes shell commands
3. No input sanitization

If you must proceed:
- Review every line of code
- Run in sandboxed environment
- Never expose credentials

---

Usage

Pre-Installation Check

# Before installing any skill
skill-safety-check --source <skill-url>

# Example
skill-safety-check --source github.com/user/skill-repo

Post-Installation Verification

# Verify installed skill
skill-safety-check --verify --skill-name <name>

Interactive Mode

User: "Install jina-cli"
Agent: [Runs skill-safety-verifier]
→ Analyzes skill
→ Presents risk assessment
→ User decides

---

Integration

With ClawdHub

# Install with auto-verification
npx skills add <owner/repo> --verify

With OpenClaw

The verifier runs automatically before skill installation when enabled in config.

---

Configuration

Settings

# .openclaw/config.yaml
skill_safety:
  enabled: true
  auto_check: true
  block_high_risk: false  # Set true to auto-block
  scan_depth: full        # quick | full

Environment Variables

SKILL_SAFETY_LOG_LEVEL=info
SKILL_SAFETY_CACHE_TTL=3600

---

Best Practices

1. Always verify - Never install unvetted skills
2. Read the code - Automated checks aren't enough
3. Least privilege - Only grant necessary permissions
4. Isolate - Run high-risk skills in containers
5. Monitor - Log all skill activity

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Related

• ClawdHub - Skill marketplace
• OpenClaw Security - Platform security docs
• Skill Writing Guide - How to write safe skills

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License

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details