eresus-serialization-review

eresus-serialization-review is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from EresusSecurity/appsec-skills. It costs 100 tokens per session (825 once invoked), scanned A, original, Apache-2.0.

A focused security review for serialization and deserialization, the process of turning data into a stored format and back into program objects. It checks object mappers, parsers, cookies, files, queues, and other data crossing trust boundaries.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to review Java serialization, Python pickle, unsafe YAML or XML parsing, PHP unserialize, .NET formatters, and similar data-handling code.
Why use it?
It helps find vulnerabilities where untrusted data can create unsafe objects, run unexpected behavior, or gain extra privileges.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

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

Good fit Use it to review Java serialization, Python pickle, unsafe YAML or XML parsing, PHP unserialize, .NET formatters, and similar data-handling code.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/eresussecurity/appsec-skills/eresus-serialization-review
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-serialization-review
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-serialization-review

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/eresussecurity/appsec-skills/eresus-serialization-review/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/eresussecurity/appsec-skills/eresus-serialization-review)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/eresussecurity/appsec-skills/eresus-serialization-review"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/eresussecurity/appsec-skills/eresus-serialization-review/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-serialization-review

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/eresussecurity/appsec-skills/eresus-serialization-review"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/eresussecurity/appsec-skills/eresus-serialization-review.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 100 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 825 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 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 $0.00100 $0.00825
Opus 5 $0.00050 $0.00413
Sonnet 5 $0.00020 $0.00165
Haiku 4.5 $0.00010 $0.00082

Measured 10d ago against content hash 8725a80daaae, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-09, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

eresus-serialization-review scanned grade A with 0 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.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

skills/eresus-serialization-review/SKILL.md · 127 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 127 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Serialization Security Review

Purpose

Find vulnerabilities caused by unsafe serialization, deserialization, object mapping, parser configuration, and cross-boundary state transfer. Focus on cases where untrusted bytes, JSON, YAML, XML, cookies, view state, cache blobs, or queue messages are turned into executable, privileged, or overly dynamic objects.

High-Risk Targets

Prioritize:

  • Java native serialization and ObjectInputStream
  • Jackson polymorphic typing and unsafe default typing
  • Fastjson auto-type behavior
  • .NET BinaryFormatter, LosFormatter, NetDataContractSerializer
  • PHP unserialize() and POP-chain entry points
  • Python pickle, marshal, and unsafe YAML loaders
  • Node parsers that revive functions, prototypes, or constructors
  • session cookies, view state, queue payloads, cache entries, and signed blobs crossing trust boundaries

Workflow

Step 1: Find Deserialization Boundaries

Locate where external or semi-trusted data is parsed, decoded, revived, or reconstructed:

  • HTTP body parsers
  • cookies and session stores
  • file import handlers
  • webhook processors
  • message queue consumers
  • cache/database blob readers
  • mobile/app local state restores

Step 2: Classify the Input Trust Level

For each boundary, decide whether the input is:

  • fully attacker-controlled
  • user-controlled but signed/encrypted
  • partner-controlled
  • internal-only but reachable through weaker upstream systems

Do not assume "internal" means safe without an integrity guarantee.

Step 3: Identify Dangerous Parser Features

Look for:

  • polymorphic type resolution
  • class-name-based instantiation
  • automatic object revival
  • unsafe YAML/XML object construction
  • magic methods, hooks, or callbacks triggered after deserialization
  • prototype pollution or constructor abuse
  • gadget-friendly libraries on the classpath or dependency tree

Step 4: Judge Exploitability

Confirm:

  • the data crosses a trust boundary
  • attacker influence reaches the parser
  • type restrictions or integrity checks are absent, weak, or bypassable
  • the resulting object graph has dangerous side effects or privileged behavior

Read the full file on GitHub · 127 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 · 127 lines · 100 tokens per session scan A 8725a80daaae

Subscribe to this mod's changes

eresus-serialization-review is a skill published in the GitHub repository EresusSecurity/appsec-skills (7 stars, last pushed 5mo ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 100 tokens to every session and 825 once invoked, about $0.0005 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.