GHSA-74p7-6h78-gw8p
Fix: umanio-agency/skillctl@28dfce3GHSA-74p7-6h78-gw8p is a remote code execution vulnerability in skillctl. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-74p7-6h78-gw8p is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
skillctl: argument injection, path traversal in --dest, FIFO/device DoS, hardlink exfiltration, and commit-trailer forgery
Real-World Exposure
skillctlReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects crates.io packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Impact
Following the path-safety patches in GHSA-wx3m-whqv-xv47 (v0.1.2), a comprehensive multi-angle audit surfaced five further vulnerabilities, now patched in v0.1.3:
source_shaargument injection ingit ls-tree(CRITICAL).InstalledSkill.source_shadeserialized from.skills.toml(committed, PR-mergeable) flowed unvalidated intogit ls-tree -r -z <refspec> -- <path>. Because the refspec sits before--, an attacker who slipped a malicious.skills.tomlinto a PR could setsource_sha = "--name-only"/--abbrev=0/--output=…and corrupt the diff classifier (which drivespull/pushdestructive decisions), or forge a divergence state to trickpush --on-divergence overwriteinto clobbering the wrong content.- FIFO / device / socket denial-of-service in
copy_dir_all(CRITICAL). The file-type branch only checkedis_dir()/is_symlink(); a FIFO inside a skill folder fell through tofs::copy, which blocks indefinitely waiting for a writer. A character device like/dev/zerowould read until OOM. Reachable onskillctl addagainst any adversarial library. add --destarbitrary-directory wipe in agent mode (HIGH).--destaccepted absolute paths and..traversal without validation, so a single invocationskillctl add --dest /Users/victim/.ssh --on-conflict overwrite --skill <maliciously-named>wouldremove_dir_allarbitrary directories — no.skills.tomlround-trip required. Reachable in any non-interactive / agent-driven workflow where flag values may be attacker-supplied.- Commit-message trailer forgery via skill names (HIGH). Skill names were spliced verbatim into
git commit -m "update skill: <name>"and into thecommit.messagefield of--jsonoutput. A skill namedfoo\nCo-Authored-By: evil@xproduced a forged commit trailer that downstream tooling (Linear, GitHub commit-bot, release-notes scrapers) treats as real authorship metadata. - Hardlink exfiltration via the round-trip (HIGH).
fs::symlink_metadatareports a regular file for hardlinks (shared inode), andfs::copyreads the target content. An untrusted agent writing<project>/my-skill/dataas a hardlink to~/.ssh/id_rsawould have shipped the SSH key content to the (possibly public) library on the nextskillctl pushordetect.
Patches
Fixed in v0.1.3:
InstalledSkill::validaterejects anysource_shathat isn't 40–64 hex characters.fs_util::copy_dir_allonly allows regular files and directories; FIFO / socket / device / other special files are rejected withAppError::Config.commands::add::resolve_destinationrejects..unconditionally and rejects absolute paths in non-interactive /--jsonmode.- New
src/sanitize.rsmodule:validate_identifier(strict, no control bytes / newlines / ESC, used for skillname+ individualtags) andvalidate_message_safe(lenient, allows\n+\t, rejects\r+ DEL + C0/C1 controls, used fordescriptionand--message). Wired at theskill::discoverandread_tagsboundaries so poisoned skills are dropped silently and poisoned descriptions/tags are stripped from otherwise-valid skills. fs_util::copy_dir_allchecksmetadata.nlink() > 1on regular files (Unix) and refuses hardlinked content.
All checks are lexical or single-syscall (symlink_metadata, metadata). No canonicalize, no TOCTOU windows. 23 new unit + integration tests cover each rejection class; cargo test: 95 pass; clippy clean; cargo audit clean.
Workarounds
Upgrade to v0.1.3. Pre-patch mitigations are awkward but possible:
- Audit every
.skills.tomlsource_shafield before runningskillctl pull/push/detect. - Audit library content for FIFO / device files and hardlinks before running
skillctl add. - Never invoke
skillctl addwith attacker-controllable--destvalues in agent / CI contexts. - Never use
--messagewith attacker-controlled content.
Credit
The findings were surfaced by a maintainer-led multi-angle audit (6 parallel sub-agents, one per threat-model dimension) following the firebaguette audit that motivated v0.1.2. The methodology (cross-agent convergence to identify the most exploitable items) is documented in the project's internal decisions log; the strongest signal was the four-of-six independent convergence on the source_sha vector.
Resources
- Fix commit: 28dfce3
- Release: https://github.com/umanio-agency/skillctl/releases/tag/v0.1.3
- Prior advisory (path-safety + symlinks): GHSA-wx3m-whqv-xv47
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | skillctl | all versions | 0.1.3 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for skillctl. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update skillctl to 0.1.3 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-74p7-6h78-gw8p is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether GHSA-74p7-6h78-gw8p is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to GHSA-74p7-6h78-gw8p. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-74p7-6h78-gw8p in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-74p7-6h78-gw8p across crates.io dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.