skill-sentinel 0.1.1

Scan Agent Skill packages for security threats using multi-agent AI analysis

Enkrypt AI Skill Sentinel

A security scanner for Agent Skill packages. Skill Sentinel uses multi-agent AI analysis to detect prompt injection, data exfiltration, command injection, malware, and other threats hiding in skill packages for Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, and OpenClaw.

Agent Skills extend AI coding assistants with custom instructions and scripts — but they also create a new attack surface. A single malicious skill can steal credentials, inject hidden prompts, exfiltrate code, or execute arbitrary commands. Skill Sentinel catches these threats before they reach your agent.

Supported Platforms

Cursor

Claude Code

Codex

OpenClaw

and other agents

Key Features

🔍 Multi-Agent Security Pipeline

Specialized agents work together to analyze Skills from multiple angles — manifest inspection, file verification, cross-referencing, and threat correlation.

🦠 Built-in Malware Detection

Automatic VirusTotal integration scans binary files (executables, archives, PDFs) for known malware before any LLM analysis begins.

📄 No Truncation Limits

Reads complete file contents without arbitrary cutoffs — catching malicious instructions hidden deep in documentation where other scanners stop looking.

🔗 Cross-File Threat Correlation

Detects sophisticated attacks that span multiple files by tracking data flows and verifying that script behavior matches documented claims.

🎯 AI Agent Attack Detection

Purpose-built for prompt injection, command injection, credential theft, and other threats specific to AI coding assistants.

⚡ Parallel Bulk Scanning

Scan entire directories of Skills concurrently with organized reports — audit all your Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, and OpenClaw Skills in one command.

Installation

Requires Python >= 3.10, < 3.14.

From PyPI

pip install skill-sentinel

Or using uv (recommended):

uv pip install skill-sentinel

From Source

For development or local modifications:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/enkryptai/skill-sentinel.git
cd skill-sentinel

# Install with uv (recommended)
uv venv --python 3.13 .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install -e .

# Or install with pip
pip install -e .

Quick Start

# 1. Export your OpenAI API key
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."

# 2. (Optional) Export your VirusTotal API key for binary malware scanning
export VIRUSTOTAL_API_KEY="your-vt-api-key"

# 3. Scan a skill directory
skill-sentinel scan /path/to/skill/directory

Alternatively, create a .env file in the project root instead of exporting variables:

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your keys

Usage

skill-sentinel scan [provider] [OPTIONS]

Positional:
  provider              cursor / claude / codex / openclaw to auto-discover that
                        provider's skills, or omit to discover all.
                        Can also be a direct path to a skill directory.

Path flags (mutually exclusive):
  --skill PATH          Scan a single skill directory.
  --dir PATH            Scan all skill subdirectories inside a parent directory.

Options:
  -o, --output PATH     Single scan: output file (default: report.json).
                        Multi-scan: output directory (default: ./skill_sentinel_reports).
  --parallel            Scan multiple skills in parallel (5 concurrent).
  -m, --model MODEL     OpenAI model to use (default: gpt-4.1).
  --api-key KEY         OpenAI API key (prefer OPENAI_API_KEY env var).
  -V, --version         Show version and exit.

Examples

# Scan a single skill directory
skill-sentinel scan --skill ./my-skill
skill-sentinel scan --skill ./my-skill -o report.json

# Scan all skills inside a parent directory
skill-sentinel scan --dir ./all-my-skills/
skill-sentinel scan --dir ./all-my-skills/ -o ./reports/

# Scan in parallel (5 concurrent)
skill-sentinel scan --dir ./all-my-skills/ --parallel

# Auto-discover and scan ALL skills from cursor, claude, codex, and openclaw paths
skill-sentinel scan

# Auto-discover only Cursor skills, in parallel
skill-sentinel scan cursor --parallel

# Scan only Claude skills
skill-sentinel scan claude

# Custom output directory for auto-discovery
skill-sentinel scan codex -o ./my-reports/

# Use a different model
skill-sentinel scan --skill ./my-skill -m gpt-4o

Auto-Discovery

When no path is given (or a provider keyword is used), the scanner searches these well-known locations for skill directories containing a SKILL.md:

Location	Scope
.cursor/skills/	Project-level (Cursor)
.claude/skills/	Project-level (Claude)
.codex/skills/	Project-level (Codex)
skills/	Agent workspace-level (OpenClaw)
~/.cursor/skills/	User-level global (Cursor)
~/.claude/skills/	User-level global (Claude)
~/.codex/skills/	User-level global (Codex)
~/.openclaw/skills/	User-level global (OpenClaw)

Reports are saved as <provider>__<skill_name>.json in ./skill_sentinel_reports/ (or the directory specified with -o).

Programmatic Usage

from skill_sentinel.main import scan

report = scan("/path/to/skill", output_path="report.json", model="gpt-4.1")
print(report["overall_risk_assessment"]["skill_verdict"])

What It Does

The scanner performs a multi-step security analysis:

1. File Discovery — lists all files in the skill directory (static, no LLM).
2. VirusTotal Binary Scan (optional) — if binary files (executables, archives, images, PDFs, etc.) are found and a VIRUSTOTAL_API_KEY is set, each binary is checked against VirusTotal's malware database via SHA-256 hash lookup. Results are passed to the report synthesizer.
3. SKILL.md Analysis — an agent reads the SKILL.md manifest and instructions, looking for prompt injection, trust abuse, discovery abuse, and other threats.
4. File Verification (conditional) — if the skill contains scripts or referenced files beyond SKILL.md, a second agent reads each file and checks alignment with SKILL.md claims, searching for command injection, data exfiltration, hardcoded secrets, obfuscation, etc.
5. Report Synthesis — a final agent combines all findings (including VirusTotal results), filters false positives, prioritizes findings, and produces a structured JSON report.

Malware Scanning (VirusTotal)

If a VIRUSTOTAL_API_KEY environment variable is set, Skill Sentinel automatically scans binary files found in skill packages against VirusTotal's malware database. This runs before the agent pipeline — no LLM calls are needed.

Supported binary types: executables (.exe, .dll, .so, .dylib, .bin), archives (.zip, .tar, .gz, .7z, .rar), documents (.pdf, .doc, .xls), images (.png, .jpg, .gif), JVM/WASM (.jar, .war, .wasm, .class), and more.

Getting a free API key: Sign up at virustotal.com — the free tier allows 500 lookups/day, which is more than enough for skill scanning.

Output

The scanner writes a JSON report containing:

• skill_path — absolute path to the scanned skill directory
• validated_findings — confirmed threats with severity, evidence, remediation
• false_positives — dismissed findings with reasoning
• priority_order — ranked list of finding IDs
• correlations — related findings grouped together
• recommendations — actionable next steps
• references — VirusTotal scan links and other reference URLs
• overall_risk_assessment — risk level, verdict (SAFE / SUSPICIOUS / MALICIOUS), reasoning
• token_usage — LLM token usage metrics for the scan

Project Structure

skill_scanner_package/
├── pyproject.toml              # Package build config
├── README.md
└── src/skill_sentinel/
    ├── __init__.py             # Package version
    ├── cli.py                  # CLI entry point
    ├── main.py                 # Programmatic API
    ├── crew.py                 # Multi-agent crew definition
    ├── config/
    │   ├── agents.yaml         # Agent definitions
    │   └── tasks.yaml          # Task definitions
    ├── data/
    │   ├── threat_categories.md    # Threat taxonomy
    │   └── report_schema.json      # Output JSON schema
    └── tools/
        ├── custom_tool.py      # ReadFile & Grep tools
        ├── file_discovery.py   # Static file listing
        └── virustotal_tool.py  # VirusTotal binary malware scanning

Environment Variables

Variable	Description	Default
OPENAI_API_KEY	Your OpenAI API key (required)	—
OPENAI_MODEL_NAME	Model to use for analysis	gpt-4.1
VIRUSTOTAL_API_KEY	VirusTotal API key for binary malware scanning (optional)	—

Threat Categories

Skill Sentinel detects the following threat categories, mapped to OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications 2025 and OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications:

Category	Severity	Description
Prompt Injection	HIGH–CRITICAL	Override attempts, mode changes, policy bypass hidden in SKILL.md
Transitive Trust Abuse	HIGH	Instructions that delegate trust to external/untrusted data sources
Data Exfiltration	CRITICAL	Network calls that steal credentials, files, or environment variables
Command Injection	CRITICAL	Dangerous eval(), exec(), os.system(), shell injection
Hardcoded Secrets	CRITICAL	API keys, passwords, private keys embedded in code
Obfuscation	HIGH	Base64 blobs + exec, hex-encoded payloads, deliberately unreadable code
Unauthorized Tool Use	HIGH	Code that violates the skill's own allowed-tools declaration
Skill Discovery Abuse	HIGH	Brand impersonation, keyword baiting, misleading descriptions
Tool Chaining Abuse	HIGH	Multi-step workflows that read sensitive data then transmit it
Resource Abuse	MEDIUM	Infinite loops, unbounded memory allocation, recursive bombs
Autonomy Abuse	MEDIUM	Unsolicited activation, unbounded retries, no user confirmation
Over-Collection	MEDIUM	Disproportionate data access relative to stated purpose
Cross-Context Bridging	MEDIUM	Accessing data from other sessions, conversations, or workspaces
Dependency Risk	MEDIUM	Unpinned pip install, typosquatting, unknown GitHub repos
Malware	MEDIUM–CRITICAL	Binary files flagged by VirusTotal or unverifiable binaries

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! To get started:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/my-feature)
3. Set up the development environment:

uv venv --python 3.13 .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install -e .

4. Make your changes
5. Submit a pull request

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.

Copyright 2025 Enkrypt AI, Inc.