T05 · Unauthorized Access and Privilege Escalation
- Location
SKILL.md:157- Finding
Unnecessary Enumeration of Credential-Related Environment Variables
- Content
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Vulnerability Details
File Location:
SKILL.md, line 157
Vulnerability Type: Unnecessary access to process environment data
Risk Level: Lowbash env | grep -E "API|KEY|TOKEN|SECRET" | sed "s/=.*/=***/" # Linux/macOSTechnical Analysis
The skill recommends executing
env, which enumerates the Agent process's complete environment before filtering for variable names associated with API keys, tokens, and secrets. Although the finalsedoperation masks variable values in displayed output, the command still accesses the complete environment and reveals which credential-related variables are available.Environment reconnaissance is not necessary for the skill's stated blog-writing functionality. The skill also declares access to the
Bashtool, meaning an Agent following these instructions could execute the command in a host environment containing unrelated credentials. This violates the principle of least privilege.No instruction that transmits the discovered information to an external party was identified. The provided pipeline also does not directly display secret values, so the immediate exposure is limited primarily to credential variable names and the existence of configured credentials.
Attack Path
- A user activates the blog-writing skill in an Agent with shell access.
- The Agent follows the environment-validation instructions in
SKILL.md. - The Agent executes the supplied pipeline using the declared
Bashcapability. - The
envprocess reads all environment variables available to the Agent. - The pipeline identifies credential-related variables and displays their names while masking their values.
- The resulting credential inventory could provide reconnaissance for a subsequent attack if combined with another command-injection, prompt-injection, or data-exfiltration mechanism.
Impact Assessment
The command operates with the environment-access privileges of the Ag ...[truncated 555 chars]
- Remediation
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Remediation Suggestions
- Remove the broad
envenumeration command from the configuration-validation instructions. - If a specific API credential is genuinely required, check only that explicitly named variable without printing its value. For example, use a platform-appropriate existence test that returns only a boolean status.
- Document every required environment variable by exact name rather than searching for generic patterns such as
KEY,TOKEN, orSECRET. - Remove the
Bashtool from the skill's declared tools unless shell execution is essential to its core functionality. - If shell access must remain available, restrict execution to a minimal allowlist of commands and prevent user-supplied text from being interpolated into shell commands.
- Ensure logs and Agent responses never include environment-variable values or unnecessary credential metadata.
- Remove the broad
