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Security audit

identify-patent-white-space-ip

Security checks for vulnerabilities and agentic risk

Overview

This is a disclosed patent-analysis skill that may create a local HTML report, with no hidden code, credential use, or persistence beyond that report.

Before installing, expect a structured patent white-space analysis workflow that pauses at two confirmation points and may create a local HTML report in the workspace. Only authorize PatSnap MCP access if you are comfortable sharing the relevant patent queries, map details, and business context with that service.

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
  • Excessive AgencyUnrestricted Tool Access, Autonomous Decision Making, Scope Creep
  • MCP Tool PoisoningHidden Instructions, Unicode Deception, Parameter Description Injection
  • Prompt InjectionInstruction Override, Hidden Instructions, Exfiltration Commands
  • Data ExfiltrationExternal Transmission, Env Variable Harvesting, File System Enumeration
  • Privilege EscalationExcessive Permissions, Sudo/Root Execution, Credential Access
Findings (5)

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 · SKILL.md (reported line 75)May include surrounding context.

md
Do not choose a candidate on the user’s behalf.

Do not continue to contradiction diagnosis without confirmation of problem value.

Do not perform technical feasibility validation.

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 · SKILL.md (reported line 319)May include surrounding context.

md
Do not choose a candidate on the user’s behalf.

Do not continue to contradiction diagnosis without confirmation of problem value.

Do not perform technical feasibility validation.

Description-Behavior Mismatch

Medium
Category
Not specified by scanner
Confidence
91% confidence
Finding

The manifest describes a workflow for identifying and assessing patent white-space signals, with explicit limits on downstream analysis, but it does not mention generating files or persisting artifacts. Stage 8 adds a concrete report-generation and file-output behavior by directing creation of an HTML file with a specific filename in a workspace directory.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Natural-Language Policy Violations

Medium
Category
Not specified by scanner
Confidence
94% confidence
Finding

The instructions explicitly require lang="en" and an English system-font stack, which forces a specific language/locale choice in the generated report. The file does not offer the user a language choice or document a justified region-specific need for English-only output.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Context-Inappropriate Capability

Low
Category
Not specified by scanner
Confidence
80% confidence
Finding

The core purpose is analytical reasoning over patent-map evidence with confirmation gates and bounded outputs. Writing a self-contained HTML report to a workspace directory introduces a persistence/output capability that is ancillary and not explicitly declared in the manifest’s purpose statement.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Static analysis

No suspicious patterns detected.