NVIDIA SkillSpector

Canonical version: NVIDIA SkillSpector.

SkillSpector is NVIDIA's open-source security scanner for AI Agent Skills — the executable skill components used by Claude Code, Codex CLI, and Gemini CLI. It vets a skill before you install it, detecting vulnerabilities and malicious patterns.

Key points

• Why it exists — NVIDIA's research found 26.1% of skills contain vulnerabilities and 5.2% show likely malicious intent; executable scripts are ~2.12x more likely to be vulnerable. SkillSpector is the pre-install gate for that risk.
• Detection — 64 rules across 16 categories: Prompt injection, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply-chain risk, dangerous code execution, etc.
• Two-stage analysis — fast static pattern matching, then optional LLM-powered semantic evaluation for intent.
• Inputs — git repos, URLs, zip files, directories, single files.
• Output — terminal, JSON, Markdown, SARIF; risk score 0–100 with severity labels.
• Under the hood — Python 3.12+, LangGraph architecture; AST behavioral analysis, YARA signatures, taint tracking; live CVE lookups via OSV.dev (offline fallback); LLM providers OpenAI / Anthropic / NVIDIA.
• License — Apache 2.0.

Why it matters

As skills become the portable unit of agent capability (see Google AI Skills, AI Skill Distribution), the attack surface moves to the skill supply chain. SkillSpector is exactly the vetting layer the AI Skill Supply Chain Security thesis calls for, and a practical complement to the AI Skill Portability Checklist — portability and safety are two halves of trustworthy skill distribution.

References

• Repository: https://github.com/NVIDIA/SkillSpector

Related

• AI Agent Skills
• AI Skill Supply Chain Security
• AI Skill Portability Checklist
• Prompt injection
• Google AI Skills
• Claude Code Skills

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