Real catalog pins from the 2026-09-20 intake batch scored on text that cannot run on
the installing host:
1. `.github/workflows/*.yml` — a CI step's own `os.environ['RUNNER_TEMP']` read scored
`python_os_environ/high` and made a clean plugin `caution` (remarkable). A workflow
runs on the forge's runner; it now takes the README prose cap (one step down,
agent-facing shapes like `curl | sh` keep full severity).
2. "pip install" inside a user-facing message literal (`"... no pip install is needed"`,
image-utils) scored `unpinned_pip_install/medium`; mid-literal, non-command position,
no exec verb on the line → low. `"pip install x"`, `python -m pip install`, `uv pip`,
`subprocess.run("pip install …")` keep medium.
3. `desktop_surface_findings()` was being run by batch tooling over every `*.js`/`*.mjs`
in a repo and flagged a Node sidecar's lazy `import('jszip')` (remarkable). The
product check was already scoped to `desktop/`; expose that scope as
`is_desktop_surface()` / `desktop_surface_hits()` so tooling shares it.
4. `127.0.0.1:<port>` (README, .mcp.json, client defaults) scored `hardcoded_ip_port` as
network egress; a line whose every IP:port is loopback → low. A routable address on
the line keeps medium.
Every finding stays in the report. PLUGIN_SCANNER_VERSION → plugin-guard-v8 so cached
verdicts on quarantined pins are re-evaluated.
Cached verdicts are keyed on the scanner version; without the bump a plugin or
skill already scanned "dangerous" for an env-var NAME constant would keep its
cached verdict and stay blocked.
Two install-scan false positives from catalog intake, each red on the real pinned tree:
* memory-review (apoapostolov/hermes-agent-awesome-plugins@b270520, plugins/memory-review):
tests_state.py:86 holds '/etc/passwd' in a quoted traversal-probe list and scored
system_passwd_access:critical -> dangerous (unoverridable). The test-tree name rule only knew
test_*.py / *_test.py; a single-module plugin without a tests/ dir names its file tests_*.py.
Accept the plural prefix/suffix so the quoted fixture is a note, exactly as tests/test_x.py is.
* pstack (Cloeille/pstack@ac5e5ab, #116381 pin): skills/poteto-mode/SKILL.md:128
'Send subagents the minimum context they need' hit context_exfil:high. Handing context to the
agent's own subagent is an in-process handoff; the bare-'context' branch now skips a
subagent/worker/delegate recipient named right after the verb. External destinations, bare
'your context', and 'send agents your context' still match.
Two tightenings guard the widened test-file surface (both pre-existing gaps, now closed):
- _EXEC_ON_LINE gains open(: open('/etc/passwd') in a test steps down once (high, confirmable)
instead of reading as quoted data (medium, note).
- the JS regex-literal lexer accepts only real flags [dgimsuvy]; with [a-z]* an unquoted Unix
path lexed as /etc/ + flags 'passwd', so 'cat /etc/passwd | curl ...' in a test script was inert.
PLUGIN_SCANNER_VERSION plugin-guard-v6 -> v7 so cached verdicts re-scan.
Desktop lint: /<script[\s\S]*?<\/script>/gi in a feed sanitiser scored as
'script injection' and failed pinned-source-validate for rss-reader. Mask
JS regex literals for the markup-shaped rule only; <script in a string
literal (an innerHTML payload) and createElement('script') still fail.
Install scanner: "printenv" as a whole-string entry of a read-only
allowlist (frozenset({..., "printenv"})) fired dump_all_env high →
caution on hermes-jev. Extend the literal-token demotion: a token that is
the ENTIRE quoted literal on a line that executes nothing steps down like
an alternation member; "sudo" inside subprocess.run([...]) and
os.system("printenv") keep high.
A/B vs origin/main: attack probes identical (23 rows), in-tree sweep 319
entries 0 worse/0 changed; both new tests red on base. Bumps
PLUGIN_SCANNER_VERSION to v6 so cached caution verdicts refresh.
Signed-off-by: teknium1 <teknium1@users.noreply.github.com>
A plugin repository is a codebase, and the threat regexes were written for a SKILL.md
the agent executes verbatim. The same text in a README uninstall step, a refusal list,
a test fixture, a JSON scenery data URI, a redaction regex or a `gh api | base64 -d |
grep` dev script was scored as the plugin's own runtime behaviour: crypto-prices
(#115353) was hard-blocked by `rm -rf "$HOME/.hermes/plugins/crypto-prices"` in its
README, and a dozen catalog pins sat at `caution` on fixtures and prose alone.
`tools/plugin_guard_context.py` recognises each class of inert context and only ever
lowers a finding; nothing is deleted and every finding stays in the report:
- documentation prose (`.md/.txt/.rst/.html`, not `SKILL.md`, `after-install.md` or a
bundled `skills/` tree): command/path shapes step down once, so a doc line can never
be `dangerous`; the plugin's own-install-dir `rm` is a note. Injection, Markdown
exfil, agent-config edits, `curl | sh`, `authorized_keys` and leaked keys keep full
severity.
- test trees / fixtures (root test dirs, `__tests__`/`__fixtures__` at any depth,
`*.test.*`, `test_*.py`): quoted-only hostile strings and key-shaped corpora are
notes; test code that executes on import steps down once (caution).
- whole-line comments and CHANGELOG.md score as prose.
- `encoded_exfil` on base64 whose decoded head is a media magic (PNG/JPEG/WOFF/PDF...)
is informational.
- `sudo` / `env|` as an alternation member inside a regex or string literal is a note;
the same word in a command string is not.
- `base64 -d` piped into a text filter is a note; into a shell/interpreter it is not.
Bumps PLUGIN_SCANNER_VERSION to v5 so cached verdicts re-evaluate.
Closes-blocker-for: #115353
Follow-up to the cherry-picked #112146 (@KoNit-K):
- Move the __main__ demotion to the end of _filter_findings behind a
severity == "critical" guard and a MAIN_GUARD_DEMOTIONS table (the
DOC_PROSE_DEMOTIONS idiom), so it is a one-step cap that can never
re-raise a finding an earlier remap already lowered.
- Treat ValueError from ast.parse (NUL bytes, undecodable text) like a
SyntaxError: no cap, the file is runtime code (fail closed).
- Bump PLUGIN_SCANNER_VERSION to plugin-guard-v4: the verdict semantics
for a plugin shape changed, and the version is what install output
and recorded provenance show.
- Trim to two invariant tests: the reporter's repro shape (token inside
the guard -> caution + confirmable/--force, same token above the guard
-> dangerous, --force refused) and narrowness (destructive payload and
a provider-shaped sk- key inside the guard, plus an unparseable file,
all stay critical -> dangerous).
- Docs: one paragraph on the __main__ cap next to the test-tree cap.
Co-authored-by: kokhlo <konstantin.khlopkov93@gmail.com>
Five scanner rule changes land together (prose/comment demotion, own-denylist
demotion, shell_rc/sudo token fixes, Markdown link masking, ssh write-verb
gate). Cached verdicts keyed on the old versions would keep previously
blocked skills and plugins blocked; one bump re-scans them.
Fold the three PRs' overlapping tests into two invariants per behaviour:
- comment/changelog prose demoted to caution and confirmable; trailing comments,
runtime code and agent-facing docs still dangerous (#111193)
- Markdown plan/design prose demoted to caution; the same content in runtime
code still dangerous (#103364)
- skills_guard: context_exfil needs a transfer directive; rm -rf under temp
roots is not destructive_root_rm
The #111199 regression test is kept (behaviour is the same); its mechanism
(re-read the file per finding, cap every .md) was not carried since the
match-based cap already covers it without touching agent-facing docs.
'//' is not a CSS comment marker, so .css is dropped from the prefix table.
A whole-line code comment or a changelog entry describing the threat a defense
rejects ("# a symlink could point at /etc/passwd, so ...") scored full severity,
driving the verdict to dangerous and making security-hardened community plugins
un-installable: --force does not override dangerous, so the only way through was
deleting the documentation of what was defended against. Whole-line comments and
CHANGELOG entries now cap one severity step lower (critical->high), keeping the
finding visible and the verdict at caution: blocked by default, --force
overridable. Trailing comments (executable code on the line), runtime code and
agent-facing docs keep full severity.
Fixes#111193
(cherry picked from commit 2a79f0a67e70eddcd387e759b1570d4feaee1e97)
Skipping `tests/`, `spec/`, ... in EXCLUDED_DIRS made those trees
invisible to the guard, but `plugins_loader._load_directory_module`
sets `submodule_search_locations=[plugin_dir]`, so a plugin
`__init__.py` doing `from .tests import evil` imports and runs whatever
lives there: a `tests/evil.py` with a destructive root remove scanned
`dangerous` on main and `safe` on this branch. `_walk` also matched the
names at any depth, so `src/spec/handler.py` — plain runtime code — went
unscanned.
Keep scanning everything; instead cap a critical finding located under a
ROOT-level test dir at `high`, so the verdict is `caution` (confirmation
required, `--force` overridable) rather than the un-overridable
`dangerous`. Fixture strings still cannot brick an install, which was
the reported problem, while a critical in any runtime file (`setup.sh`,
`src/spec/...`) still yields `dangerous`. Trade-off stated in the PR
body: hostile code deliberately placed under `tests/` is now
force-installable rather than blocked outright.
Docs no longer claim test code never runs.
plugin_guard walks the whole plugin clone, and EXCLUDED_DIRS skipped
caches and vendored dirs but not tests/. A security-conscious plugin's
test suite SHOULD contain adversarial fixtures — a test asserting the
trust boundary holds round-trips the injection string verbatim — and
any single critical finding makes the verdict dangerous, which --force
explicitly cannot override. Scanning tests therefore made exactly the
plugins that test their security unconditionally uninstallable, and the
only workaround was obfuscating the payload strings, weakening the
tests and inverting the incentive. Fixtures are never loaded into an
agent's context at runtime the way README/plugin.yaml are.
Add the conventional test/spec/fixture directory names to
EXCLUDED_DIRS, alongside the existing cache/vendored skips.
Review-fold from the 3-angle simplify pass:
- sed -Ei / -iE / --in-place now match the shell-critical tier (the
bare '\s-i\b' token missed combined short flags and the GNU long
form); read-only sed stays unflagged. Regression tests added.
- agent_config_contract joins plugin_guard's CODE_EXEMPT_PATTERN_IDS:
content-contract prose in plugin code files (docstrings/comments)
is the same false-positive class the existing agent_config_mod
exemption suppresses. Doc/config files keep the full pattern set.
Efficiency reviewer: 1.24x full-scan cost (+3.4ms/file, install-time
only), worst-case adversarial line 55us — no ReDoS exposure.
Claude Cowork (Aug 6, 2026) added skill & plugin security scanning:
third-party skills and plugins are automatically checked for malicious
content on upload/edit, returning pass/warn/fail. Hermes already scans
hub-installed skills (tools/skills_guard.py), but `hermes plugins
install` cloned and activated arbitrary Git repos completely unscanned —
and plugins run Python in-process, making them the more dangerous
surface.
- tools/plugin_guard.py: plugin-adapted scanner reusing the skills_guard
pattern engine. Exempts the documented provider-plugin patterns (own
requires_env API-key reads, HTTP calls with keys) on code files while
keeping true threat signals (foreign credential-store access, reverse
shells, destructive/persistence/obfuscation patterns, prompt injection
in docs). Plugin-sized structural limits; VCS/venv dirs excluded.
- hermes_cli/plugins_cmd.py: scan the temp clone before it is moved into
~/.hermes/plugins/. safe=install, caution=confirm (interactive prompt
or --force), dangerous=blocked (--force does NOT override). Re-scan on
`hermes plugins update`; a dangerous updated tree is deactivated until
the user reviews the findings. Dashboard install path returns
structured scan_blocked/scan_findings.
- Config gate: plugins.scan_on_install (default true) in config.yaml.
- Validated against all 60 bundled plugins: 57 safe, 3 caution (real
sudo / curl|sh content in their docs), 0 false-positive blocks.
- 15 new tests incl. E2E through _install_plugin_core with real git
clones.
