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Show HN: Security-Risk Patterns in OpenClaw Skills

https://safeclaw.io/
2•dinodrv•1h ago
I built a static analysis scanner that checks OpenClaw agent skill definitions.

Here's every category I found on ClawHub.

Hidden Content: HTML comments with instructions, zero-width Unicode characters (U+200B-U+200F, U+2060-2064, U+FEFF), CSS hiding (display:none, opacity:0), and bidirectional text overrides. These are invisible when reading markdown but the LLM processes them.

Prompt Injection: Direct attempts to override agent behavior: "ignore previous instructions", role reassignment ("you are now"), model-specific tokens like [INST] and <|im_start|>, and persona manipulation ("pretend you are").

Shell Execution: Remote code execution vectors: curl|bash, eval(), exec(), npx -y (auto-confirms remote packages), reverse shells via /dev/tcp or nc -e, and one-liners in Python, PHP, Perl, Ruby.

Data Exfiltration: URLs pointing to paste sites (pastebin, transfer.sh), webhook services (ngrok, webhook.site, pipedream), messaging webhooks (Slack, Discord, Telegram bot API), and raw IP addresses.

Embedded Secrets: Hardcoded credentials across 17 types: AWS keys, OpenAI API keys, GitHub/GitLab tokens, Stripe keys, PEM private keys, JWT tokens, database connection strings, SSH private keys, and more.

Sensitive File References: Instructions to access .ssh/, .env, .aws/credentials, /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, and private key paths.

Memory/Config Poisoning: This one is interesting. Skills that try to write to agent memory files (CLAUDE.md, SOUL.md, MEMORY.md, CODEX.md) or IDE rule files (.cursorrules, .windsurfrules, .clinerules). This creates persistence - the injected instructions survive across sessions.

Supply Chain Risk: External script downloads from raw GitHub URLs, and package install commands (npm install, pip install, gem install, cargo install, go install, brew install). A skill shouldn't be silently installing packages.

Encoded Payloads: Base64 strings over 40 characters, atob()/btoa() calls, Buffer.from(..., 'base64'), hex escape sequences, and String.fromCharCode(). Encoding is used to bypass pattern detection in other scanners.

Image Exfiltration: This is the most complex category with 17 patterns. Markdown images with exfil query params (), variable interpolation in image URLs (), SVG with embedded scripts or foreignObject, 1x1 tracking pixels, CSS-hidden image beacons, steganography tool references, Canvas API manipulation (getImageData, toDataURL), and double extensions (.png.exe).

System Prompt Extraction: Instructions to leak the agent's system prompt: "reveal your system prompt", "repeat the words above", "print everything above", "what are your original instructions".

Argument Injection: Shell metacharacters in tool arguments: command substitution $(), variable expansion ${}, backticks, chained commands (;rm, |bash, &&curl), and GTFOBINS exploitation flags (--exec, --checkpoint-action).

Cross-Tool Chaining: Multi-step attack patterns that combine legitimate tools: read-then-exfiltrate sequences, numbered step-by-step instructions, and direct tool function references (read_file(), execute_command()). Each step looks harmless alone.

Excessive Permissions: Requests for "unrestricted access", "bypass security", "root access", "disable all safety checks", "full system control". A skill definition shouldn't need these.

Suspicious Structure: Content over 10K characters (larger surface area for hiding threats), and imperative instruction density over 30% (lines starting with "you must", "always", "never", "execute", "run").

How it works ? The scanner is stateless. You paste or upload a skill definition, it runs 15 analyzers against the content, and returns findings with severity levels, line numbers, evidence snippets, and OWASP LLM Top 10 references.

No database, no persistence, no network calls. Single request in, results out.

Beating GPT-2 for less than $100 – Andrej Karpathy

https://github.com/karpathy/nanochat/discussions/481
2•logicprog•4m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Bulwark – Open-source governance layer for AI agents (Rust, MCP-native)

https://github.com/bpolania/bulwark
1•bpolania•6m ago•1 comments

Ask HN: Best roles in tech where I can be in meetings mostly?

2•general_reveal•8m ago•2 comments

Vulnerabilities in cloud-based password managers [pdf]

https://eprint.iacr.org/2026/058.pdf
2•leobdkr•10m ago•1 comments

Ask HN: Which password manager do you use / would you recommend?

1•unodonut•12m ago•3 comments

Linux CVE Assignment Process

http://www.kroah.com/log/blog/2026/02/16/linux-cve-assignment-process/
2•LorenDB•14m ago•0 comments

Lack of measurement invariance in mental health across intelligence levels

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160289625000662
1•i7l•15m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Krea iPad – real-time editing model with Apple Pencil input

https://twitter.com/venturetwins/status/2023107207500566675
1•dvrp•15m ago•0 comments

Dark web agent spotted bedroom wall clue to rescue girl from abuse

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2gn239exlo
18•colinprince•18m ago•1 comments

Meta: Messenger.com is no longer available for messaging

https://www.facebook.com/help/messenger-app/804132271957789
3•ddxv•19m ago•1 comments

OddsRabbit- Reddit Alternative that doesn't allow politics. Only hobbies

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.oddsrabbit.app&hl=en_US
1•Gothypink•20m ago•2 comments

The AWS Marketplace Race Condition Nobody Warns You About

https://sidshome.wordpress.com/2026/02/16/the-aws-marketplace-race-condition-nobody-warns-you-about/
1•sijain2•20m ago•0 comments

Humanoids go mainstream as China's robotics champions appear at CCTV spectacle

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3343634/chinas-tech-companies-vie-attention-cctvs-fest...
2•akyuu•21m ago•0 comments

The claws are open, until they close around you, out of your control

https://blog.inconsistentrecords.co.uk/blog/the-claws-are-open-until-they-close-around-you/
1•circadian•21m ago•0 comments

Friday CLI: The first multi-modal CLI Agent (chat/voice/video/images)

https://www.npmjs.com/package/@tryfridayai/cli
1•datacog•22m ago•0 comments

Is End-to-End Encryption Optional for Large Groups?

https://soatok.blog/2026/02/14/is-end-to-end-encryption-optional-for-large-groups/
1•birdculture•23m ago•1 comments

Nimslo stereo camera

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimslo
1•petethomas•26m ago•0 comments

Cowork: Claude Code Power for Knowledge Work

https://claude.com/product/cowork
2•Anon84•29m ago•0 comments

More macOS 26.3 Finder column view silliness

https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/2026/2/4.html
4•JumpCrisscross•31m ago•0 comments

This Is What Destroying the Vaccine Market Looks Like

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/this-is-what-destroying-the-vaccine-market-looks-like-moderna-flu-pr...
5•hn_acker•33m ago•4 comments

White House uses USAID funds for budget director Vought's security

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/white-house-uses-usaid-funds-budget-director-voughts-security-do...
4•hn_acker•34m ago•2 comments

Interleaved HTML Streaming (Patching)

https://github.com/WICG/declarative-partial-updates/blob/main/patching-explainer.md
2•jicea•36m ago•0 comments

Walking Duluth

https://walkingtheworld.substack.com/p/walking-duluth
2•paulpauper•36m ago•0 comments

Why I Built Reader: Open-source web scraping for LLMs

https://reader.dev/blog/why-i-built-reader
2•nihalwashere•38m ago•2 comments

OpenClaw and the Great Hiring Hiatus

https://jcalfromallin.substack.com/p/openclaw-and-the-great-hiring-hiatus
1•jhonovich•42m ago•2 comments

The Universal Code

https://randommacro394532.substack.com/p/the-universal-code
2•mramirez97•46m ago•0 comments

New GitHub repository settings to configure pull request access

https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/187038
2•cpeterso•50m ago•0 comments

GrowthClaw, Distribution Infrastructure for OpenClaw

https://github.com/mrrkrieg/growthclaw
1•dankrieg•51m ago•2 comments

Economic Espionage and Innovation Restrictions (2025) [pdf]

https://andrew-kao.github.io/files/Espionage_draft_20251231.pdf
1•walterbell•52m ago•2 comments

AI is destroying Open Source, and it's not even good yet

https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2026/ai-is-destroying-open-source/
22•VorpalWay•53m ago•10 comments