T08 · Insecure Dependencies
Warning
- Location
- SKILL.md:83
- Finding
- Unpinned Third-Party Package Download and Execution## Vulnerability Details **File Location**: `SKILL.md:83` **Vulnerability Type**: Unpinned third-party dependency execution **Risk Level**: Medium **Complete Code Snippet**: ```bash npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector ``` ### Technical Analysis The documented command invokes `npx` without specifying an exact version of `@modelcontextprotocol/inspector`. If the package is not already available locally, `npx` can retrieve it from the configured package registry and immediately execute its package entry point with the invoking user's privileges. Because neither a version nor an integrity hash is pinned, the code executed by users may differ from the code that existed when this Skill was audited. This creates a supply-chain risk if the package, its maintainer account, one of its transitive dependencies, or the configured registry is compromised. It also permits unexpected behavior from an ordinary incompatible or unsafe future release. ### Attack Path 1. An attacker compromises the package, a maintainer account, a transitive dependency, or the package source used by the victim's npm configuration. 2. The attacker publishes or serves a modified release containing malicious installation or runtime code. 3. A user follows the Skill documentation and runs `npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector`. 4. `npx` resolves and downloads the unpinned package release. 5. The downloaded package executes with the user's local account permissions. 6. Malicious code can access files, environment variables, credentials, and network resources available to that user. ### Impact Assessment Successful exploitation could provide arbitrary code execution under the invoking user's account. The accessible scope may include project files, user-readable configuration and credential files, environment variables such as `MILLIMETRIC_KEY`, and network services reachable from the host. It does not inherently grant administrator privileges, but the impact c ...[truncated 77 chars]
- Remediation
- ## Remediation Suggestions - Pin the package to an exact reviewed version, for example: ```bash npx --yes @modelcontextprotocol/inspector@<reviewed-exact-version> ``` - Prefer installing the dependency through a project manifest and committing a lockfile with integrity metadata. - Review the pinned package and its transitive dependency tree before recommending execution. - Configure npm to use a trusted registry and retain integrity verification. - Run the inspector as an unprivileged user in an isolated environment with access only to the required files and credentials. - Avoid exposing production or account-wide keys during interactive testing; use a least-privilege read-only key where possible.