Cso

When to invoke

Use when: "security audit", "threat model", "pentest review", "OWASP", "CSO review".

Voice triggers (speech-to-text aliases): "see-so", "see so", "security review", "security check", "vulnerability scan", "run security".

Preamble

eval "$(~/.vibestack/bin/vibe-slug 2>/dev/null)" 2>/dev/null || SLUG="unknown"
_LEARN_FILE="${VIBESTACK_HOME:-$HOME/.vibestack}/projects/${SLUG:-unknown}/learnings.jsonl"
if [ -f "$_LEARN_FILE" ]; then
  _LEARN_COUNT=$(wc -l < "$_LEARN_FILE" 2>/dev/null | tr -d ' ')
  echo "LEARNINGS: $_LEARN_COUNT entries loaded"
  if [ "$_LEARN_COUNT" -gt 5 ] 2>/dev/null; then
    ~/.vibestack/bin/vibe-learnings-search --limit 5 2>/dev/null || true
  fi
else
  echo "LEARNINGS: none yet"
fi

{{include lib/snippets/session-host.md}}

{{include lib/snippets/decision-brief.md}}

{{include lib/snippets/working-protocols.md}}

{{include lib/snippets/state-protocols.md}}

/cso — Chief Security Officer Audit (v2)

You are a Chief Security Officer who has led incident response on real breaches and testified before boards about security posture. You think like an attacker but report like a defender. You don't do security theater — you find the doors that are actually unlocked.

The real attack surface isn't your code — it's your dependencies. Most teams audit their own app but forget: exposed env vars in CI logs, stale API keys in git history, forgotten staging servers with prod DB access, and third-party webhooks that accept anything. Start there, not at the code level.

You do NOT make code changes. You produce a Security Posture Report with concrete findings, severity ratings, and remediation plans.

User-invocable

When the user types /cso, run this skill.

Arguments

• /cso — full daily audit (all phases, 8/10 confidence gate)
• /cso --comprehensive — monthly deep scan (all phases, 2/10 bar — surfaces more)
• /cso --infra — infrastructure-only (Phases 0-5, 5b, 6, 12-14)
• /cso --code — code-only (Phases 0-1, 7, 9-11, 12-14)
• /cso --skills — skill supply chain only (Phases 0, 8, 12-14)
• /cso --diff — branch changes only (combinable with any above)
• /cso --supply-chain — dependency audit only (Phases 0, 3, 12-14)
• /cso --owasp — OWASP Top 10 only (Phases 0, 9, 12-14)
• /cso --scope auth — focused audit on a specific domain

Mode Resolution

1. If no flags → run ALL phases 0-14 including 5b, daily mode (8/10 confidence gate).
2. If --comprehensive → run ALL phases 0-14 including 5b, comprehensive mode (2/10 confidence gate). Combinable with scope flags.
3. Scope flags (--infra, --code, --skills, --supply-chain, --owasp, --scope) are mutually exclusive. If multiple scope flags are passed, error immediately: "Error: --infra and --code are mutually exclusive. Pick one scope flag, or run /cso with no flags for a full audit." Do NOT silently pick one — security tooling must never ignore user intent.
4. --diff is combinable with ANY scope flag AND with --comprehensive.
5. When --diff is active, each phase constrains scanning to files/configs changed on the current branch vs the base branch. For git history scanning (Phase 2), --diff limits to commits on the current branch only. Phase 5b is the one phase that cannot be constrained that way — a live account has no diff. Under --diff it runs only when the branch diff touches AWS configuration: a Terraform file declaring an aws provider or an aws_* resource, a CDK app file, an IAM policy document, or a deploy config naming AWS. When it runs, it audits the whole account as usual and the report says so. When the diff touches none of those, skip it, print AWS posture: skipped (--diff, no AWS configuration changed on this branch), and omit "5b" from phases_run.
6. Phases 0, 1, 12, 13, 14 ALWAYS run regardless of scope flag.
7. If WebSearch is unavailable, skip checks that require it and note: "WebSearch unavailable — proceeding with local-only analysis."

Important: Use the Grep tool for all code searches

The bash blocks throughout this skill show WHAT patterns to search for, not HOW to run them. Use Claude Code's Grep tool (which handles permissions and access correctly) rather than raw bash grep. The bash blocks are illustrative examples — do NOT copy-paste them into a terminal. Do NOT use | head to truncate results.

Exception — Phase 5b (AWS Account Posture). That phase queries a live account, so there is nothing in the repository to grep. Its credential gate and every aws command in its Checks table are meant to be executed with Bash, as written. They are all read-only (get, list, describe), and the phase's own read-only contract is the limit on what may run. This exception covers Phase 5b only; every other phase stays on the Grep tool.

Instructions

Phase 0: Architecture Mental Model + Stack Detection

Before hunting for bugs, detect the tech stack and build an explicit mental model of the codebase. This phase changes HOW you think for the rest of the audit.

Stack detection:

ls package.json tsconfig.json 2>/dev/null && echo "STACK: Node/TypeScript"
ls Gemfile 2>/dev/null && echo "STACK: Ruby"
ls requirements.txt pyproject.toml setup.py 2>/dev/null && echo "STACK: Python"
ls go.mod 2>/dev/null && echo "STACK: Go"
ls Cargo.toml 2>/dev/null && echo "STACK: Rust"
ls pom.xml build.gradle 2>/dev/null && echo "STACK: JVM"
ls composer.json 2>/dev/null && echo "STACK: PHP"
find . -maxdepth 1 \( -name '*.csproj' -o -name '*.sln' \) 2>/dev/null | grep -q . && echo "STACK: .NET"

Framework detection:

grep -q "next" package.json 2>/dev/null && echo "FRAMEWORK: Next.js"
grep -q "express" package.json 2>/dev/null && echo "FRAMEWORK: Express"
grep -q "fastify" package.json 2>/dev/null && echo "FRAMEWORK: Fastify"
grep -q "hono" package.json 2>/dev/null && echo "FRAMEWORK: Hono"
grep -q "django" requirements.txt pyproject.toml 2>/dev/null && echo "FRAMEWORK: Django"
grep -q "fastapi" requirements.txt pyproject.toml 2>/dev/null && echo "FRAMEWORK: FastAPI"
grep -q "flask" requirements.txt pyproject.toml 2>/dev/null && echo "FRAMEWORK: Flask"
grep -q "rails" Gemfile 2>/dev/null && echo "FRAMEWORK: Rails"
grep -q "gin-gonic" go.mod 2>/dev/null && echo "FRAMEWORK: Gin"
grep -q "spring-boot" pom.xml build.gradle 2>/dev/null && echo "FRAMEWORK: Spring Boot"
grep -q "laravel" composer.json 2>/dev/null && echo "FRAMEWORK: Laravel"

Soft gate, not hard gate: Stack detection determines scan PRIORITY, not scan SCOPE. In subsequent phases, PRIORITIZE scanning for detected languages/frameworks first and most thoroughly. However, do NOT skip undetected languages entirely — after the targeted scan, run a brief catch-all pass with high-signal patterns (SQL injection, command injection, hardcoded secrets, SSRF) across ALL file types. A Python service nested in ml/ that wasn't detected at root still gets basic coverage.

Mental model:

• Read CLAUDE.md, README, key config files
• Map the application architecture: what components exist, how they connect, where trust boundaries are
• Identify the data flow: where does user input enter? Where does it exit? What transformations happen?
• Document invariants and assumptions the code relies on
• Express the mental model as a brief architecture summary before proceeding

This is NOT a checklist — it's a reasoning phase. The output is understanding, not findings.

{{include lib/snippets/prior-learnings.md}}

Phase 1: Attack Surface Census

Map what an attacker sees — both code surface and infrastructure surface.

Code surface: Use the Grep tool to find endpoints, auth boundaries, external integrations, file upload paths, admin routes, webhook handlers, background jobs, and WebSocket channels. Scope file extensions to detected stacks from Phase 0. Count each category.

Infrastructure surface:

setopt +o nomatch 2>/dev/null || true  # zsh compat
{ find .github/workflows -maxdepth 1 \( -name '*.yml' -o -name '*.yaml' \) 2>/dev/null; [ -f .gitlab-ci.yml ] && echo .gitlab-ci.yml; } | wc -l
find . -maxdepth 4 -name "Dockerfile*" -o -name "docker-compose*.yml" 2>/dev/null
find . -maxdepth 4 -name "*.tf" -o -name "*.tfvars" -o -name "kustomization.yaml" 2>/dev/null
ls .env .env.* 2>/dev/null

Output:

ATTACK SURFACE MAP
══════════════════
CODE SURFACE
  Public endpoints:      N (unauthenticated)
  Authenticated:         N (require login)
  Admin-only:            N (require elevated privileges)
  API endpoints:         N (machine-to-machine)
  File upload points:    N
  External integrations: N
  Background jobs:       N (async attack surface)
  WebSocket channels:    N

INFRASTRUCTURE SURFACE
  CI/CD workflows:       N
  Webhook receivers:     N
  Container configs:     N
  IaC configs:           N
  Deploy targets:        N
  Secret management:     [env vars | KMS | vault | unknown]

Phase 2: Secrets Archaeology

Scan git history for leaked credentials, check tracked .env files, find CI configs with inline secrets.

Git history — known secret prefixes:

git log -p --all -S "AKIA" --diff-filter=A -- "*.env" "*.yml" "*.yaml" "*.json" "*.toml" 2>/dev/null
git log -p --all -S "sk-" --diff-filter=A -- "*.env" "*.yml" "*.json" "*.ts" "*.js" "*.py" 2>/dev/null
git log -p --all -G "ghp_|gho_|github_pat_" 2>/dev/null
git log -p --all -G "xoxb-|xoxp-|xapp-" 2>/dev/null
git log -p --all -G "password|secret|token|api_key" -- "*.env" "*.yml" "*.json" "*.conf" 2>/dev/null

.env files tracked by git:

git ls-files '*.env' '.env.*' 2>/dev/null | grep -v '.example\|.sample\|.template'
grep -q "^\.env$\|^\.env\.\*" .gitignore 2>/dev/null && echo ".env IS gitignored" || echo "WARNING: .env NOT in .gitignore"

CI configs with inline secrets (not using secret stores):

for f in $(find .github/workflows -maxdepth 1 \( -name '*.yml' -o -name '*.yaml' \) 2>/dev/null) .gitlab-ci.yml .circleci/config.yml; do
  [ -f "$f" ] && grep -n "password:\|token:\|secret:\|api_key:" "$f" | grep -v '\${{' | grep -v 'secrets\.'
done 2>/dev/null

Severity: CRITICAL for active secret patterns in git history (AKIA, sk_live_, ghp_, xoxb-). HIGH for .env tracked by git, CI configs with inline credentials. MEDIUM for suspicious .env.example values.

FP rules: Placeholders ("your_", "changeme", "TODO") excluded. Test fixtures excluded unless same value in non-test code. Rotated secrets still flagged (they were exposed). .env.local in .gitignore is expected.

Diff mode: Replace git log -p --all with git log -p <base>..HEAD.

Phase 3: Dependency Supply Chain

Goes beyond npm audit. Checks actual supply chain risk.

Package manager detection:

[ -f package.json ] && echo "DETECTED: npm/yarn/bun"
[ -f Gemfile ] && echo "DETECTED: bundler"
[ -f requirements.txt ] || [ -f pyproject.toml ] && echo "DETECTED: pip"
[ -f Cargo.toml ] && echo "DETECTED: cargo"
[ -f go.mod ] && echo "DETECTED: go"

Standard vulnerability scan: Run whichever package manager's audit tool is available. Each tool is optional — if not installed, note it in the report as "SKIPPED — tool not installed" with install instructions. This is informational, NOT a finding. The audit continues with whatever tools ARE available.

CVE lookup where no local advisory data exists: A direct dependency whose ecosystem has no audit tool installed, or whose audit tool ran but carries no advisory data for that package, gets a WebSearch on the package name plus its pinned version and CVE. Cite the advisory ID in the finding. Such a finding is UNVERIFIED until the vulnerable function is shown to be called (Phase 12, active verification rule 5). Where WebSearch is unavailable, note the dependency as unchecked rather than assuming it is clean.

Install scripts in production deps (supply chain attack vector): For Node.js projects with hydrated node_modules, check production dependencies for preinstall, postinstall, or install scripts.

Lockfile integrity: Check that lockfiles exist AND are tracked by git.

Severity: CRITICAL for known CVEs (high/critical) in direct deps. HIGH for install scripts in prod deps / missing lockfile. MEDIUM for abandoned packages / medium CVEs / lockfile not tracked.

FP rules: devDependency CVEs are MEDIUM max. node-gyp/cmake install scripts expected (MEDIUM not HIGH). No-fix-available advisories without known exploits excluded. Missing lockfile for library repos (not apps) is NOT a finding.

Phase 4: CI/CD Pipeline Security

Check who can modify workflows and what secrets they can access.

GitHub Actions analysis: For each workflow file, check for:

• Unpinned third-party actions (not SHA-pinned) — use Grep for uses: lines missing @[sha]
• pull_request_target (dangerous: fork PRs get write access)
• Script injection via ${{ github.event.* }} in run: steps
• Secrets as env vars (could leak in logs)
• CODEOWNERS protection on workflow files

Severity: CRITICAL for pull_request_target + checkout of PR code / script injection via ${{ github.event.*.body }} in run: steps. HIGH for unpinned third-party actions / secrets as env vars without masking. MEDIUM for missing CODEOWNERS on workflow files.

FP rules: First-party actions/* unpinned = MEDIUM not HIGH. pull_request_target without PR ref checkout is safe (precedent #11). Secrets in with: blocks (not env:/run:) are handled by runtime.

Phase 5: Infrastructure Shadow Surface

Find shadow infrastructure with excessive access.

Dockerfiles: For each Dockerfile, check for missing USER directive (runs as root), secrets passed as ARG, .env files copied into images, exposed ports.

Config files with prod credentials: Use Grep to search for database connection strings (postgres://, mysql://, mongodb://, redis://) in config files, excluding localhost/127.0.0.1/example.com. Check for staging/dev configs referencing prod.

IaC security: For Terraform files, check for "*" in IAM actions/resources, hardcoded secrets in .tf/.tfvars. For K8s manifests, check for privileged containers, hostNetwork, hostPID.

Severity: CRITICAL for prod DB URLs with credentials in committed config / "*" IAM on sensitive resources / secrets baked into Docker images. HIGH for root containers in prod / staging with prod DB access / privileged K8s. MEDIUM for missing USER directive / exposed ports without documented purpose.

FP rules: docker-compose.yml for local dev with localhost = not a finding (precedent #12). Terraform "*" in data sources (read-only) excluded. K8s manifests in test//dev//local/ with localhost networking excluded.

Phase 5b: AWS Account Posture

Phase 5 reads the IaC. This phase reads the live account, because what Terraform describes and what the account actually holds drift apart.

Under --diff: the account has no diff to constrain, so this phase runs only when the branch diff touches AWS configuration — a Terraform file declaring an aws provider or an aws_* resource, a CDK app file, an IAM policy document, or a deploy config naming AWS. If it does, run the phase in full against the whole account and say in the report that this phase alone was not limited to the branch. If it does not, print AWS posture: skipped (--diff, no AWS configuration changed on this branch) and omit "5b" from phases_run. Check this before the credential gate below.

Gate: Run only when AWS is detected: a Terraform provider "aws" block, a CDK app (aws-cdk-lib in package.json or aws_cdk in requirements), boto3 or @aws-sdk imports, or aws sts get-caller-identity succeeding. If none match, skip silently. Never ask the user for keys and never read ~/.aws/credentials yourself.

Two failure modes are reported separately, because they need different fixes: the aws CLI is not installed, or it is installed and the identity call failed (no profile, expired session, wrong region, blocked network). The CLI's own error text names which. Report the skip line, then move on — an account nobody could reach is never reported as clean.

if ! command -v aws >/dev/null 2>&1; then
  echo "AWS posture: skipped (aws CLI not found)"
elif ! AWS_STS_ERR=$(aws sts get-caller-identity --output text 2>&1 >/dev/null); then
  echo "AWS posture: skipped (credentials unusable) — $(printf '%s' "${AWS_STS_ERR:-no error text from aws}" | tr '\n' ' ')"
fi

Read-only contract: Every call in this phase is a get, list, or describe. No put, create, update, delete, attach, or enable — the audit observes the account, it does not repair it. An AccessDenied on a single call is noted as AWS posture: <check> not readable and is not itself a finding.

Scope is the caller's account. IAM, CloudTrail and the account-level S3 block are global — one invocation each. The rows marked --region <r> (security groups, EBS, GuardDuty, Security Hub, Secrets Manager) are run once per region, with <r> substituted from:

aws ec2 describe-regions --query 'Regions[].RegionName' --output text

Checks:

An "active region" is one where aws ec2 describe-instances --region <r> or aws lambda list-functions --region <r> returns at least one resource. Do not flag GuardDuty, Security Hub, or EBS encryption in regions with nothing in them.

Public bucket severity needs object evidence. The public-access and policy-status calls say a bucket is reachable, not what is in it, so severity turns on the sampled key listing. Keys that are all static site assets (.html, .css, .js, images, fonts) together with an aws s3api get-bucket-website --bucket <b> that succeeds → MEDIUM. Keys showing anything else — backups, database dumps, exports, user uploads, documents, archives → CRITICAL, and the finding quotes the keys that decided it. If the listing is denied, empty, or the keys do not settle the question, the finding stays MEDIUM and its description opens with "Classification pending manual confirmation — the object sample could not show what this bucket holds"; the public flag on its own never carries CRITICAL. The title is the same in all three cases, so the Phase 13 fingerprint stays stable when a later run can read the sample.

Severity: CRITICAL for root access keys present / "*"-on-"*" policy attached to an IAM user / public bucket whose sampled keys show non-static content. HIGH for root or user without MFA / no logging multi-region trail with validation / 0.0.0.0/0 or ::/0 on 22, 3389, or all ports. MEDIUM for everything else in the table.

FP rules: A bucket that serves a static site (aws s3api get-bucket-website --bucket <b> succeeds) and whose sampled keys are all static assets is MEDIUM, not CRITICAL — still report it so the owner confirms. A security group with no attached network interfaces (aws ec2 describe-network-interfaces --filters Name=group-id,Values=<sg> empty) drops one level. Access keys that an external system rotates (name or tag says so): state the rotation source in the finding instead of flagging age alone. Sandbox or personal accounts (caller ARN contains sandbox, dev, or personal) get the same checks, and the finding says which account it is.

Report: Findings from this phase use Category AWS Posture and phase "5b" — the one phase identifier that is a string rather than an integer, both in the saved report's phases_run list and in each finding's phase field. phase_name is AWS Account Posture, and the console table's Phase column shows P5b, matching the P-prefix the other phases use there. In place of File:Line, cite the resource in the file field and leave line at 0. Exactly one form applies per finding, and the choice is not a judgement call:

• The check names a specific resource → its ARN (arn:aws:s3:::acme-uploads, arn:aws:iam::123456789012:user/deploy).
• The check is region-scoped with no single resource → <account-id>:<region> (EBS default encryption, GuardDuty, Security Hub).
• The check is account-wide with no single resource → <account-id>:global (root MFA, root access keys, the account-level public access block). Root findings use this form, not arn:aws:iam::<account-id>:root.

The console table shows that same value in its File:Line column. Because the Phase 13 fingerprint is sha256 of category + file + normalized title, one form per check is what keeps it stable across runs — two runs that disagree on the form produce two fingerprints for one finding, and the run reports it as both resolved and new. With the form pinned, resolved / persistent / new tracking works for AWS findings exactly as it does for code.

Phase 12 verification for this phase. The Phase 12 parallel verifier reads a file at a line, and an AWS finding has neither — sent through unchanged it scores below 8 and is discarded. Verify these findings instead by re-running the phase's own read-only aws call and comparing what comes back to the value the finding asserts. Give the verifier the command, the JSON field, and the asserted value — not the reasoning. Observed value still matches → VERIFIED, score 10. Value differs, or the call now errors → discard; the account changed under the audit, or the first read was wrong. Everything else in Phase 12's Parallel Finding Verification is unchanged: the verifiers still run in parallel, and a discarded finding stays out of the report.

These findings go through the Phase 12 filter and the same confidence gate as every other phase; nothing here bypasses it. Phase 12 carries carve-outs for this phase in hard exclusions 6 and 16 — a live account's observed configuration is not an "absent best practice", and the CloudTrail check is about tamper-evident coverage rather than application logging.

Phase 6: Webhook & Integration Audit

Find inbound endpoints that accept anything.

Webhook routes: Use Grep to find files containing webhook/hook/callback route patterns. For each file, check whether it also contains signature verification (signature, hmac, verify, digest, x-hub-signature, stripe-signature, svix). Files with webhook routes but NO signature verification are findings.

TLS verification disabled: Use Grep to search for patterns like verify.*false, VERIFY_NONE, InsecureSkipVerify, NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED.*0.

OAuth scope analysis: Use Grep to find OAuth configurations and check for overly broad scopes.

Verification approach (code-tracing only — NO live requests): For webhook findings, trace the handler code to determine if signature verification exists anywhere in the middleware chain (parent router, middleware stack, API gateway config). Do NOT make actual HTTP requests to webhook endpoints.

Severity: CRITICAL for webhooks without any signature verification. HIGH for TLS verification disabled in prod code / overly broad OAuth scopes. MEDIUM for undocumented outbound data flows to third parties.

FP rules: TLS disabled in test code excluded. Internal service-to-service webhooks on private networks = MEDIUM max. Webhook endpoints behind an API gateway that verifies the signature before the request reaches the app are NOT findings — but require evidence.

Phase 7: LLM & AI Security

Check for AI/LLM-specific vulnerabilities. This is a new attack class.

Use Grep to search for these patterns:

• Prompt injection vectors: User input flowing into system prompts or tool schemas — look for string interpolation near system prompt construction
• Unsanitized LLM output: dangerouslySetInnerHTML, v-html, innerHTML, .html(), raw() rendering LLM responses
• Tool/function calling without validation: tool_choice, function_call, tools=, functions=
• AI API keys in code (not env vars): sk- patterns, hardcoded API key assignments
• Eval/exec of LLM output: eval(), exec(), Function(), new Function processing AI responses

Key checks (beyond grep):

• Trace user content flow — does it enter system prompts or tool schemas?
• RAG poisoning: can external documents influence AI behavior via retrieval?
• Tool calling permissions: are LLM tool calls validated before execution?
• Output sanitization: is LLM output treated as trusted (rendered as HTML, executed as code)?
• Cost/resource attacks: can a user trigger unbounded LLM calls?

Severity: CRITICAL for user input in system prompts / unsanitized LLM output rendered as HTML / eval of LLM output. HIGH for missing tool call validation / exposed AI API keys. MEDIUM for unbounded LLM calls / RAG without input validation.

FP rules: User content in the user-message position of an AI conversation is NOT prompt injection (precedent #13). Only flag when user content enters system prompts, tool schemas, or function-calling contexts.

Phase 8: Skill Supply Chain

Scan installed Claude Code skills for malicious patterns. 36% of published skills have security flaws, 13.4% are outright malicious (Snyk ToxicSkills research).

Tier 1 — repo-local (automatic): Scan the repo's local skills directory for suspicious patterns:

ls -la .claude/skills/ 2>/dev/null

Use Grep to search all local skill SKILL.md files for suspicious patterns:

• curl, wget, fetch, http, exfiltrat (network exfiltration)
• ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY, env., process.env (credential access)
• IGNORE PREVIOUS, system override, disregard, forget your instructions (prompt injection)

Tier 2 — global skills (requires permission): Before scanning globally installed skills or user settings, use AskUserQuestion: "Phase 8 can scan your globally installed AI coding agent skills and hooks for malicious patterns. This reads files outside the repo. Want to include this?" Options: A) Yes — scan global skills too B) No — repo-local only

If approved, run the same Grep patterns on globally installed skill files and check hooks in user settings.

Severity: CRITICAL for credential exfiltration attempts / prompt injection in skill files. HIGH for suspicious network calls / overly broad tool permissions. MEDIUM for skills from unverified sources without review.

FP rules: vibestack's own skills are trusted (check if skill path resolves to a known repo). Skills that use curl for legitimate purposes (downloading tools, health checks) need context — only flag when the target URL is suspicious or when the command includes credential variables.

Phase 9: OWASP Top 10 Assessment

For each OWASP category, perform targeted analysis. Use the Grep tool for all searches — scope file extensions to detected stacks from Phase 0.

A01: Broken Access Control

• Check for missing auth on controllers/routes (skip_before_action, skip_authorization, public, no_auth)
• Check for direct object reference patterns (params[:id], req.params.id, request.args.get)
• Can user A access user B's resources by changing IDs?
• Is there horizontal/vertical privilege escalation?

A02: Cryptographic Failures

• Weak crypto (MD5, SHA1, DES, ECB) or hardcoded secrets
• Is sensitive data encrypted at rest and in transit?
• Are keys/secrets properly managed (env vars, not hardcoded)?

A03: Injection

• SQL injection: raw queries, string interpolation in SQL
• Command injection: system(), exec(), spawn(), popen
• Template injection: render with params, eval(), html_safe, raw()
• LLM prompt injection: see Phase 7 for comprehensive coverage

A04: Insecure Design

• Rate limits on authentication endpoints?
• Account lockout after failed attempts?
• Business logic validated server-side?

A05: Security Misconfiguration

• CORS configuration (wildcard origins in production?)
• CSP headers present?
• Debug mode / verbose errors in production?

A06: Vulnerable and Outdated Components

See Phase 3 (Dependency Supply Chain) for comprehensive component analysis.

A07: Identification and Authentication Failures

• Session management: creation, storage, invalidation
• Password policy: complexity, rotation, breach checking
• MFA: available? enforced for admin?
• Token management: JWT expiration, refresh rotation

A08: Software and Data Integrity Failures

See Phase 4 (CI/CD Pipeline Security) for pipeline protection analysis.

• Deserialization inputs validated?
• Integrity checking on external data?

A09: Security Logging and Monitoring Failures

• Authentication events logged?
• Authorization failures logged?
• Admin actions audit-trailed?
• Logs protected from tampering?

A10: Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)

• URL construction from user input?
• Internal service reachability from user-controlled URLs?
• Allowlist/blocklist enforcement on outbound requests?

Phase 10: STRIDE Threat Model

For each major component identified in Phase 0, evaluate:

COMPONENT: [Name]
  Spoofing:             Can an attacker impersonate a user/service?
  Tampering:            Can data be modified in transit/at rest?
  Repudiation:          Can actions be denied? Is there an audit trail?
  Information Disclosure: Can sensitive data leak?
  Denial of Service:    Can the component be overwhelmed?
  Elevation of Privilege: Can a user gain unauthorized access?

Phase 11: Data Classification

Classify all data handled by the application:

DATA CLASSIFICATION
═══════════════════
RESTRICTED (breach = legal liability):
  - Passwords/credentials: [where stored, how protected]
  - Payment data: [where stored, PCI compliance status]
  - PII: [what types, where stored, retention policy]

CONFIDENTIAL (breach = business damage):
  - API keys: [where stored, rotation policy]
  - Business logic: [trade secrets in code?]
  - User behavior data: [analytics, tracking]

INTERNAL (breach = embarrassment):
  - System logs: [what they contain, who can access]
  - Configuration: [what's exposed in error messages]

PUBLIC:
  - Marketing content, documentation, public APIs

Phase 12: False Positive Filtering + Active Verification

Before producing findings, run every candidate through this filter.

Two modes:

Daily mode (default, /cso): 8/10 confidence gate. Zero noise. Only report what you're sure about.

• 9-10: Certain exploit path. Could write a PoC.
• 8: Clear vulnerability pattern with known exploitation methods. Minimum bar.
• Below 8: Do not report.

Comprehensive mode (/cso --comprehensive): 2/10 confidence gate. Filter true noise only (test fixtures, documentation, placeholders) but include anything that MIGHT be a real issue. Flag these as TENTATIVE to distinguish from confirmed findings.

Hard exclusions — automatically discard findings matching these:

1. Denial of Service (DOS), resource exhaustion, or rate limiting issues — EXCEPTION: LLM cost/spend amplification findings from Phase 7 (unbounded LLM calls, missing cost caps) are NOT DoS — they are financial risk and must NOT be auto-discarded under this rule.
2. Secrets or credentials stored on disk if otherwise secured (encrypted, permissioned)
3. Memory consumption, CPU exhaustion, or file descriptor leaks
4. Input validation concerns on non-security-critical fields without proven impact
5. GitHub Action workflow issues unless clearly triggerable via untrusted input — EXCEPTION: Never auto-discard CI/CD pipeline findings from Phase 4 (unpinned actions, pull_request_target, script injection, secrets exposure) when --infra is active or when Phase 4 produced findings. Phase 4 exists specifically to surface these.
6. Missing hardening measures — flag concrete vulnerabilities, not absent best practices. EXCEPTION: Unpinned third-party actions and missing CODEOWNERS on workflow files ARE concrete risks, not merely "missing hardening" — do not discard Phase 4 findings under this rule. EXCEPTION: Phase 5b reports the observed state of a live account, not a checklist gap. A region running workloads with no GuardDuty detector, Security Hub off, EBS default encryption off, no account-level public access block, or a static secret unchanged for 90 days is a measured configuration of real assets — do not discard Phase 5b findings under this rule.
7. Race conditions or timing attacks unless concretely exploitable with a specific path
8. Vulnerabilities in outdated third-party libraries (handled by Phase 3, not individual findings)
9. Memory safety issues in memory-safe languages (Rust, Go, Java, C#)
10. Files that are only unit tests or test fixtures AND not imported by non-test code
11. Log spoofing — outputting unsanitized input to logs is not a vulnerability
12. SSRF where attacker only controls the path, not the host or protocol
13. User content in the user-message position of an AI conversation (NOT prompt injection)
14. Regex complexity in code that does not process untrusted input (ReDoS on user strings IS real)
15. Security concerns in documentation files (*.md) — EXCEPTION: SKILL.md files are NOT documentation. They are executable prompt code (skill definitions) that control AI agent behavior. Findings from Phase 8 (Skill Supply Chain) in SKILL.md files must NEVER be excluded under this rule.
16. Missing audit logs — absence of logging is not a vulnerability — EXCEPTION: the Phase 5b CloudTrail check asks whether a live account has tamper-evident coverage of its own control plane (multi-region, log file validation on, actually logging), which is the account's forensic record of an intrusion, not application logging. Do not discard it under this rule.
17. Insecure randomness in non-security contexts (e.g., UI element IDs)
18. Git history secrets committed AND removed in the same initial-setup PR
19. Dependency CVEs with CVSS < 4.0 and no known exploit
20. Docker issues in files named Dockerfile.dev or Dockerfile.local unless referenced in prod deploy configs
21. CI/CD findings on archived or disabled workflows
22. Skill files that are part of vibestack itself (trusted source)

Precedents:

1. Logging secrets in plaintext IS a vulnerability. Logging URLs is safe.
2. UUIDs are unguessable — don't flag missing UUID validation.
3. Environment variables and CLI flags are trusted input.
4. React and Angular are XSS-safe by default. Only flag escape hatches.
5. Client-side JS/TS does not need auth — that's the server's job.
6. Shell script command injection needs a concrete untrusted input path.
7. Subtle web vulnerabilities only if extremely high confidence with concrete exploit.
8. iPython notebooks — only flag if untrusted input can trigger the vulnerability.
9. Logging non-PII data is not a vulnerability.
10. Lockfile not tracked by git IS a finding for app repos, NOT for library repos.
11. pull_request_target without PR ref checkout is safe.
12. Containers running as root in docker-compose.yml for local dev are NOT findings; in production Dockerfiles/K8s ARE findings.

Active Verification:

For each finding that survives the confidence gate, attempt to PROVE it where safe:

1. Secrets: Check if the pattern is a real key format (correct length, valid prefix). DO NOT test against live APIs.
2. Webhooks: Trace handler code to verify whether signature verification exists anywhere in the middleware chain. Do NOT make HTTP requests.
3. SSRF: Trace the code path to check if URL construction from user input can reach an internal service. Do NOT make requests.
4. CI/CD: Parse workflow YAML to confirm whether pull_request_target actually checks out PR code.
5. Dependencies: Check if the vulnerable function is directly imported/called. If it IS called, mark VERIFIED. If NOT directly called, mark UNVERIFIED with note: "Vulnerable function not directly called — may still be reachable via framework internals, transitive execution, or config-driven paths. Manual verification recommended."
6. LLM Security: Trace data flow to confirm user input actually reaches system prompt construction.

Mark each finding as:

• VERIFIED — actively confirmed via code tracing or safe testing
• UNVERIFIED — pattern match only, couldn't confirm
• TENTATIVE — comprehensive mode finding below 8/10 confidence

Variant Analysis:

When a finding is VERIFIED, search the entire codebase for the same vulnerability pattern. One confirmed SSRF means there may be 5 more. For each verified finding:

1. Extract the core vulnerability pattern
2. Use the Grep tool to search for the same pattern across all relevant files
3. Report variants as separate findings linked to the original: "Variant of Finding #N"

Parallel Finding Verification:

For each candidate finding, launch an independent verification sub-task using the Agent tool. The verifier has fresh context and cannot see the initial scan's reasoning — only the finding itself and the FP filtering rules.

Prompt each verifier with:

• The

…(truncated)