T05 · Unauthorized Access and Privilege Escalation
- Location
SKILL.md:151- Finding
Unnecessary Credential-Related Environment Variable Enumeration
- Content
View full analysis
Vulnerability Details
File Location:
SKILL.md, lines 151–158
Vulnerability Type: Credential-related environment reconnaissance beyond the task's legitimate requirements
Risk Level: MediumVulnerable Code
bash env | grep -E "API|KEY|TOKEN|SECRET" | sed "s/=.*/=***/" # PowerShell alternative: Get-ChildItem Env: | Where-Object {$_.Name -match "API|KEY|TOKEN"} | Format-TableTechnical Analysis
The Skill directs the Agent to enumerate environment variables associated with API keys, tokens, and secrets as part of configuration validation. This operation is unrelated to the Skill's stated core purpose of generating a local Markdown daily report.
The Unix command masks variable values but still discloses credential-related variable names, which can reveal available services and authentication mechanisms. The PowerShell command is more dangerous because formatting matching environment-variable objects can display both names and values. Those values may consequently enter terminal output, Agent context, conversation transcripts, telemetry, or logs.
The behavior violates least privilege by requesting access to sensitive process-environment information without specifying a credential that the reporting task actually requires. No evidence shows that the Skill transmits the discovered information or uses it to obtain additional privileges; therefore, the confirmed issue is unauthorized sensitive-resource inspection rather than confirmed credential exfiltration.
Attack Path
- A user loads the Skill to generate a local daily report.
- The Agent follows the environment-validation instructions in
SKILL.md. - The Agent executes one of the supplied environment-enumeration commands.
- The command discovers environment variables with names associated with credentials.
- On Unix-like systems, credential names become visible even though their values are masked.
- On PowerShell, matching credenti ...[truncated 1187 chars]
- Remediation
View remediation
Remediation Suggestions
-
Remove both broad environment-variable enumeration commands from the Skill.
-
Do not request API credentials for local Markdown report generation unless a concrete feature demonstrably requires them.
-
If configuration validation becomes necessary, check only an explicitly documented variable and return only whether it is present:
bash if [ -n "${SPECIFIC_REQUIRED_VARIABLE+x}" ]; then printf '%s\n' "Configured" else printf '%s\n' "Not configured" fi -
Never print, format, log, or return the value of a secret-bearing environment variable.
-
Remove the
execcapability if report generation can be implemented through constrained read and write operations alone. -
Apply output redaction at the Agent and logging layers as defense in depth.
-
Document every required secret by its exact variable name, purpose, and minimum permissions rather than scanning for generic terms such as
KEY,TOKEN, orSECRET. -
Add a security test confirming that routine report generation neither enumerates the environment nor includes secret values in generated files, command output, or logs.
-
