eresus-deser-audit

eresus-deser-audit is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from EresusSecurity/appsec-skills. It costs 84 tokens per session (2,038 once invoked), scanned B, original, Apache-2.0.

A focused security audit for unsafe deserialization, the process of turning stored or received data back into program objects. It covers common attack methods and risky functions across major programming languages.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to audit Java, Python, Ruby, PHP, .NET, and Node.js code for unsafe object loading, pickle or Marshal use, YAML parsing, and related risks.
Why use it?
It helps find cases where attacker-controlled data can trigger unwanted code, create dangerous objects, or exploit gadget chains, which are sequences of existing program behavior used in an attack.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for no agent in particular: nothing here depends on one.

Good fit Use it to audit Java, Python, Ruby, PHP, .NET, and Node.js code for unsafe object loading, pickle or Marshal use, YAML parsing, and related risks.

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Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/eresussecurity/appsec-skills/eresus-deser-audit
Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Any agent
npx skills add EresusSecurity/appsec-skills --skill eresus-deser-audit
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/EresusSecurity/appsec-skills

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for eresus-deser-audit

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/eresussecurity/appsec-skills/eresus-deser-audit/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/eresussecurity/appsec-skills/eresus-deser-audit)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/eresussecurity/appsec-skills/eresus-deser-audit"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/eresussecurity/appsec-skills/eresus-deser-audit/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for eresus-deser-audit

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/eresussecurity/appsec-skills/eresus-deser-audit"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/eresussecurity/appsec-skills/eresus-deser-audit.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 84 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 2,038 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan B 3 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00084 $0.02038
Opus 5 $0.00042 $0.01019
Sonnet 5 $0.00017 $0.00408
Haiku 4.5 $0.00008 $0.00204

Measured 10d ago against content hash 882f40303ec9, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-10, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade B, and why

eresus-deser-audit scanned grade B with 3 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 10d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Encoded or obfuscated payloadmediumSupply chain

base64 or hex that is decoded and executed hides what actually runs from anyone reading the file.

| `marshal.loads(data)` | High — code object creation | `json.loads()` |

Downgraded: this mod is about security review, or the phrase is quoted, so it is likely naming the pattern rather than instructing it.

Unrestricted tool accesslowExcessive agency

A wildcard tool grant or "run any command" leaves no least-privilege boundary at all.

- `pickle` can execute arbitrary code with just `__reduce__` returning `(os.system, ('cmd',))`

Downgraded: this mod is about security review, or the phrase is quoted, so it is likely naming the pattern rather than instructing it.

Runs shell commandslowCapability

Expected in a hook, worth knowing in a rule or an instructions file.

- The `os.system`, `subprocess.Popen` classes are directly invokable via `__reduce__`
skills/eresus-deser-audit/SKILL.md · 194 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 194 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Deserialization Vulnerability Audit

Purpose

Perform a targeted audit of deserialization attack surfaces across any language. This skill provides structured knowledge of dangerous deserialization sinks, safe alternatives, gadget chain indicators, and a step-by-step exploitation methodology.

This is a depth-first specialist skill — it goes deeper on deserialization than the general eresus-manual-security-audit skill. Use it when the target application processes serialized data from untrusted sources.


Universal Attack Methodology

Step 1: Identify the Deserialization Sink

Search the codebase for functions that convert serialized data back into objects. Use grep_search with these patterns per language:

Java: ObjectInputStream, readObject, XStream, fromXML, Kryo, readClassAndObject Python: pickle.load, pickle.loads, yaml.load, marshal.loads, shelve.open Ruby: Marshal.load, YAML.load, Oj.load, Ox.load PHP: unserialize, simplexml_load_string .NET: BinaryFormatter, SoapFormatter, NetDataContractSerializer, LosFormatter Node.js: node-serialize, funcster, cryo

Step 2: Trace the Input Source

For each sink found, trace backwards to determine:

  • Does the serialized data come from an untrusted source? (HTTP request, file upload, message queue, database)
  • Is there any validation or type filtering before deserialization?
  • Can the attacker control the full serialized payload or only parts of it?

Step 3: Check for Type Control

The key question: can the attacker control which class/type gets instantiated?

  • If the format allows arbitrary type specification (YAML tags, Java serialization, .NET TypeNameHandling), it is almost certainly exploitable
  • If the format is type-restricted (JSON without polymorphism, yaml.safe_load), it may be safe

Step 4: Identify Available Gadgets

Look for classes on the classpath/load path that have dangerous side effects during deserialization:

  • Classes with __reduce__ / readObject / marshal_load methods
  • Classes that perform I/O, execute commands, or make network requests during construction
  • Classes that invoke callbacks or proxy methods during deserialization

Read the full file on GitHub · 194 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 10d ago First seen · 194 lines · 84 tokens per session scan B 882f40303ec9

Subscribe to this mod's changes

eresus-deser-audit is a skill published in the GitHub repository EresusSecurity/appsec-skills (7 stars, last pushed 5mo ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 84 tokens to every session and 2,038 once invoked, about $0.0004 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it B with 3 findings (encoded or obfuscated payload, unrestricted tool access, runs shell commands). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.