T05 · Unauthorized Access and Privilege Escalation
- Location
SKILL.md:16- Finding
Unnecessary Shell Execution and File-Write Capabilities
- Content
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Vulnerability Details
File Location:
SKILL.md, lines 16-19
Vulnerability Type: Excessive tool permissions and violation of least privilege
Risk Level: MediumVulnerable configuration:
yaml tools: - read - exec - writeTechnical Analysis
The skill declares access to both
execandwrite, although its documented purpose is to analyze product information and generate a text-based go-to-market strategy. The documented workflow does not identify any operation that legitimately requires executing operating-system commands or modifying local files.Granting capabilities beyond the skill's functional requirements violates the principle of least privilege. If the hosting agent exposes these declared tools without an additional authorization boundary, malicious user input, indirect prompt injection in analyzed content, or an agent reasoning error could cause the skill to invoke shell commands or write files unrelated to its stated purpose.
The configuration does not itself contain a malicious command, and no automatic exploitation behavior was identified. The risk arises from making high-impact tools available to a documentation-only workflow without a documented need or restrictive policy.
Attack Path
- A user invokes the skill with product or market information containing adversarial instructions, or untrusted content is introduced into its context.
- The agent processes that content while the unnecessary
execandwritetools are available. - The adversarial content attempts to persuade the agent to execute a command or create or overwrite a file.
- If the agent platform does not independently enforce sandboxing, path restrictions, command allowlisting, and user confirmation, the requested operation may run with the operating-system privileges of the agent process.
- The operation could affect files and resources accessible to that process.
Impact Assessment
Su ...[truncated 621 chars]
- Remediation
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Remediation Suggestions
- Remove
execandwritefrom the declared tool list because neither capability is required for generating a go-to-market strategy:yaml tools: - read - If the platform can produce responses without a
readcapability, remove that permission as well and use only the minimum text-input and text-output facilities required by the host. - If a future feature genuinely requires file creation, expose a narrowly scoped write operation restricted to a designated output directory, prohibit overwriting existing files by default, and require explicit user confirmation.
- Do not restore general shell access for routine document generation. If execution later becomes necessary, use an allowlist of fixed commands and arguments, reject shell metacharacters, run in an isolated sandbox, restrict network access, and require confirmation before execution.
- Add a documented tool-use policy stating that product descriptions, competitor material, and other supplied content are untrusted data and must never be treated as instructions to invoke tools.
- Remove