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Security audit

Science Research Writing

Security checks for vulnerabilities and agentic risk

Overview

This skill is a research-manuscript writing assistant whose local references and validation scripts match that purpose, with no hidden network, credential, destructive, or privileged behavior found.

Install this if you want help drafting or auditing research manuscripts from your own materials. Treat unpublished manuscripts, data, target-paper notes, and journal models as sensitive inputs, and review generated prose for scientific judgment before using it.

Vulnerability Patterns
  • Skill Instruction HijackingAlters the agent's session goals or safety constraints when the skill loads
  • Agent Memory PoisoningWrites attacker-controlled rules into memory that affect later sessions
  • Remote Payload Retrieval and ExecutionFetches external code whose behavior can change after review
  • Embedded Malicious CodeShips malicious scripts inside the skill and executes them locally
  • Unauthorized Access and Privilege EscalationObtains permissions beyond the task's legitimate needs
Vulnerability Patterns
  • Prompt InjectionInstruction Override, Hidden Instructions, Exfiltration Commands
  • Data ExfiltrationExternal Transmission, Env Variable Harvesting, File System Enumeration
  • Excessive AgencyUnrestricted Tool Access, Autonomous Decision Making, Scope Creep
  • System Prompt LeakageDirect Leakage, Indirect Extraction, Tool-Based Exfiltration
  • Trigger AbuseOverly Broad Trigger, Shadow Command Trigger, Keyword Baiting Trigger
Findings (10)

Tp4

High
Category
MCP Tool Poisoning
Confidence
95% confidence
Finding

This second mismatch finding highlights that the skill appears to validate local JSON models rather than simply provide manuscript guidance. Hidden operational behavior increases the chance that downstream systems grant access to sensitive files or trust outputs under false assumptions about what the skill does.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Tp4

High
Category
MCP Tool Poisoning
Confidence
96% confidence
Finding

This second mismatch finding highlights that the skill appears to validate local JSON models rather than simply provide manuscript guidance. Hidden operational behavior increases the chance that downstream systems grant access to sensitive files or trust outputs under false assumptions about what the skill does.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Direct Prompt Extraction

High
Category
System Prompt Leakage
Confidence
85% confidence
Finding

Skill contains instructions that could directly expose system prompts, internal rules, or hidden instructions to users or external parties.

Content

Scanner excerpt · references/input-output-contract.md (reported line 77)May include surrounding context.

  • [Specific evidence, claim, citation, privacy, or section-boundary risk.]
text

## Output rules

- Put useful work before process explanation.
- Preserve good existing prose instead of forcing cosmetic rewrites.

Undeclared Tool Scope

Medium
Category
MCP Least Privilege
Confidence
88% confidence
Finding

The skill explicitly instructs the agent to read multiple local reference, asset, and script files, but it declares no tool scope or permissions. That creates an authority mismatch: a caller may invoke the skill expecting a self-contained prompt, while the skill actually depends on filesystem access, which can broaden data exposure and make review of reachable content incomplete.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Autonomous Decision Making

Medium
Category
Excessive Agency
Confidence
80% confidence
Finding

Skill enables autonomous high-impact decisions without human-in-the-loop verification. Critical operations (destructive commands, financial transactions, data deletion) should require explicit user confirmation.

Content

Scanner excerpt · SKILL.md (reported line 27)May include surrounding context.

md
- facts, numbers, citations, technical terms, null findings, limitations, and author judgments that must be protected;
- the next useful output that can be produced safely now.

Do not ask the user to choose an internal mode. Do not require field, journal, section, or language preferences when a conservative useful result is possible.

If missing information would force an unsupported scientific choice:

Natural-Language Policy Violations

Medium
Category
Not specified by scanner
Confidence
86% confidence
Finding

The instruction says not to require language preferences when a conservative useful result is possible. This can cause the skill to proceed in a default language rather than offering the user a language choice, which matches the policy concern about forcing a specific language or locale without opt-in.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Vague Triggers

Medium
Category
Not specified by scanner
Confidence
95% confidence
Finding

This markdown file includes the example request Help me write my paper, which is a broad natural-language phrase that overlaps with ordinary user speech. The document does not provide tighter trigger constraints or exclusion examples nearby, so the invocation scope may be interpreted too broadly.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Autonomous Decision Making

Medium
Category
Excessive Agency
Confidence
75% confidence
Finding

Skill enables autonomous high-impact decisions without human-in-the-loop verification. Critical operations (destructive commands, financial transactions, data deletion) should require explicit user confirmation.

Content

Scanner excerpt · references/introduction.md (reported line 29)May include surrounding context.

md
- starting with a universal claim too broad for the evidence;
- literature-by-literature summary without synthesis;
- gap inflation such as `no studies have examined` without verification;
- a study aim that does not answer the stated gap;
- adding hypotheses because the section appears incomplete;
- changing a user-supplied exploratory question into a confirmatory prediction.

Autonomous Decision Making

Medium
Category
Excessive Agency
Confidence
75% confidence
Finding

Skill enables autonomous high-impact decisions without human-in-the-loop verification. Critical operations (destructive commands, financial transactions, data deletion) should require explicit user confirmation.

Content

Scanner excerpt · references/title.md (reported line 30)May include surrounding context.

md
- starting with a universal claim too broad for the evidence;
- literature-by-literature summary without synthesis;
- gap inflation such as `no studies have examined` without verification;
- a study aim that does not answer the stated gap;
- adding hypotheses because the section appears incomplete;
- changing a user-supplied exploratory question into a confirmatory prediction.

Ae4

Medium
Category
analysis-evasion
Confidence
80% confidence
Finding

Suspicious Unicode normalization or mixed-script content

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Static analysis

No suspicious patterns detected.