Back to skill

Security audit

monitor-patent-litigation-risk-ip

Security checks for vulnerabilities and agentic risk

Overview

The skill is a coherent patent-litigation research workflow with optional local reporting helpers and no evidence of hidden execution, persistence, or exfiltration.

Install only if you intend to let the agent use PatSnap connectors and public sources for litigation research. Keep API keys out of prompts and reports, approve only the needed connectors, and direct generated JSON/HTML/CSV files to a chosen output folder because reports may contain sensitive legal or business analysis.

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
  • MCP Least PrivilegeUnderdeclared Capability, Wildcard Permission, Missing Permission Declaration
  • MCP Tool PoisoningHidden Instructions, Unicode Deception, Parameter Description Injection
  • Data ExfiltrationExternal Transmission, Env Variable Harvesting, File System Enumeration
  • Privilege EscalationExcessive Permissions, Sudo/Root Execution, Credential Access
Findings (6)

Tp4

High
Category
MCP Tool Poisoning
Confidence
98% confidence
Finding

There is a clear description-behavior mismatch. The description promises a substantial analytical workflow for patent-litigation exposure monitoring and report generation, but the provided code does not implement any of those capabilities. Its only observable behavior is printing an informational message. This is a materially different and far narrower primary purpose than declared.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Tp4

High
Category
MCP Tool Poisoning
Confidence
95% confidence
Finding

The description presents an end-user skill that monitors litigation exposure and produces substantive evidence-backed analysis and reports. The supplied code does not perform that monitoring or analysis. Instead, it initializes an empty target-centric record for up to five parties, validates that a populated record conforms to expected schema rules, and writes the empty JSON structure to disk. While the schema contains fields related to cases, patents, inventors, geography, conclusions, and timelines, the code does not populate them from any connectors or primary sources, nor does it generate HTML or CSV outputs. This is a material difference in primary purpose and implemented capability, not merely an internal supporting detail.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Undeclared Tool Scope

Medium
Category
MCP Least Privilege
Confidence
91% confidence
Finding

The skill explicitly instructs use of networked patent and public-record sources, local script execution, and report artifact creation, but it does not declare any tool scope or allowed-tools boundaries. That creates an over-privileged/under-specified execution surface where a host agent may grant broader file, write, or network access than intended, increasing the chance of data exfiltration, unintended file modification, or use of unapproved external endpoints.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Natural-Language Policy Violations

Medium
Category
Not specified by scanner
Confidence
96% confidence
Finding

The instruction 'Use one portable, static, English HTML file' imposes a specific language on outputs. Under the policy criteria, forcing a locale/language without user opt-in is a natural-language policy violation unless the constraint is explicitly justified as region-specific or optional.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Natural-Language Policy Violations

Low
Category
Not specified by scanner
Confidence
88% confidence
Finding

The configuration sets DEFAULT_REPORT_LANG = "en", which imposes a specific language by default. Under the policy, language constraints should offer user choice or be clearly justified as region-specific; this file does not show such an opt-in or justification.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Natural-Language Policy Violations

Low
Category
Not specified by scanner
Confidence
88% confidence
Finding

The file’s rendering contract states that the report language defaults to English. This is a natural-language locale policy constraint, and the file does not indicate user choice or a documented justification for enforcing English as the default language.

Content

No source excerpt is available for this finding.

Static analysis

No suspicious patterns detected.