registry / AI-agent control-surface risk / @maxiaochao/pi-toolkit / 0.5.3

@maxiaochao/pi-toolkit@0.5.3

Personal pi coding agent toolkit: /todos, /btw, /cache_export extensions, browser automation, and bundled theme/skills.

AI Security Review

scanned 12d ago · by lpm-firewall-ai

The automatic postinstall mutation of a user’s global AI agent instruction file is an unconsented control-surface change. The source confirms both the lifecycle trigger and the write behavior, supporting a block.

Static reason

High-risk behavior combination matched malicious policy.; source matched previously finalized malicious package; routed for review

Trigger

Installing the package runs its postinstall hook.

Impact

The package can change instructions used by the user’s Pi agent across projects.

Mechanism

The hook copies the bundled AGENTS.md into the user’s global Pi agent directory whenever the existing file differs.

Policy narrative

During package installation, postinstall runs the agent installer. It writes the package’s bundled instructions to the user’s global Pi agent AGENTS.md whenever the file is absent or differs, without a consent check. Those instructions can affect the agent’s behavior across projects.

AI rationale

Evidence

package.jsonscripts/install-agents.mjsglobal/AGENTS.md~/.pi/agent/AGENTS.md

Decision evidence

public snapshot

AI identified this as a dangerous AI-agent capability at 98.0% confidence with low false-positive risk.

Evidence for policy risk

The package runs the agent installer automatically during postinstall.
The installer targets the user’s global Pi agent directory and replaces its AGENTS.md whenever its contents differ from the bundled file, with no consent check.
The bundled file contains behavioral instructions intended for an AI coding agent.

Evidence against

The installer also seeds a default theme and copies the package’s CLI and completion files into user-level locations.

Behavioral surface

Source

ChildProcessEnvironmentVarsFilesystemNetworkShellWebSocket

Supply chain

HighEntropyStringsUrlStrings

Manifest

NoLicense

scanned 24 file(s), 233 KB of source, external domains: 127.0.0.1, example.com

Source & flagged code

9 flagged

package.jsonView file

Lines 34-60json

34 "./themes"

35 ]

36 },

37 "bin": {

38 "pi-worktree": "bin/pi-worktree"

39 },

40 "peerDependencies": {

41 "@earendil-works/pi-ai": "*",

42 "@earendil-works/pi-coding-agent": "*",

43 "@earendil-works/pi-tui": "*",

44 "typebox": "*"

45 },

46 "dependencies": {

47 "ws": "^8.19.0"

48 },

49 "scripts": {

50 "test": "cd extensions/cache-export && node --experimental-strip-types tests/run-tests.mjs && node --experimental-strip-types ../tests/btw-history.mjs && node tests/e2e-browser.mjs",

51 "load-test": "pi -ne -e ./extensions/todo.ts && pi -ne -e ./extensions/cache-export/index.ts && pi -ne -e ./extensions/btw.ts",

52 "eval:agents": "node evaluations/agents-md/run.mjs",

53 "eval:agents:test": "node evaluations/agents-md/tests/run-tests.mjs",

54 "postinstall": "node scripts/install-agents.mjs"

High

Install Time Lifecycle Scripts

Package defines install-time lifecycle scripts.

package.jsonView on unpkg · L54

55 },

56 "publishConfig": {

57 "access": "public"

58 }

59}

extensions/cache-export/tests/e2e-browser.mjsView file

Lines 1-32javascript

1// Real-browser end-to-end test for the cache dashboard.

2// Drives actual pointer events in headless Chromium via raw CDP (Node 22

3// built-ins only: fetch + WebSocket) and asserts the hover tooltip keeps

4// working across polyline break boundaries and inside segment views.

5//

6// Chrome discovery mirrors the web-browser skill (BROWSER_BIN, common Linux

7// paths, Playwright cache, WSL Windows Chrome). If no browser is found the

8// test prints SKIP and exits 0 so CI without Chrome still passes; if a

9// browser IS found, failing assertions exit 1.

skills/chrome-cdp/scripts/cdp.mjsView file

Lines 1-32javascript

1#!/usr/bin/env node

2// cdp - lightweight Chrome DevTools Protocol CLI

3// Uses raw CDP over WebSocket, no Puppeteer dependency.

4// Requires Node 22+ (built-in WebSocket).

5//

6// Per-tab persistent daemon: page commands go through a daemon that holds

7// the CDP session open. Chrome's "Allow debugging" modal fires once per

8// daemon (= once per tab). Daemons auto-exit after 20min idle.

10import { readFileSync, writeFileSync, unlinkSync, existsSync, mkdirSync }

scripts/install-agents.mjsView file

Lines 1-21javascript

1// postinstall hook: sync the bundled global AGENTS.md and seed the default theme

2// without overriding a theme the user has already selected.

3import { readFileSync, writeFileSync, mkdirSync, existsSync, copyFileSync, chmodSync } from "node:fs";

4import { homedir, platform } from "node:os";

5import { dirname, join } from "node:path";

bin/pi-worktree-completion.bashView file

•path = bin/pi-worktree-completion.bash kind = build_helper sizeBytes = 1368 magicHex = [redacted]

Medium

Ships Build Helper

Package ships non-JavaScript build or shell helper files.

bin/pi-worktree-completion.bashView on unpkg

bin/pi-worktreeView file

•stage = ast_semantic_analysis; reason = ast_parse_error; limitedFiles = 1

High

Semantic Analysis Limited

A bounded semantic-analysis stage reached its safety limit; remaining detectors completed, but this package requires AI review.

bin/pi-worktreeView on unpkg

Source & flagged code

9 flagged · loading source

package.jsonView file

•scripts.postinstall = node scripts/install-agents.mjs

High

Install Time Lifecycle Scripts

Package defines install-time lifecycle scripts.

package.jsonView on unpkg

extensions/cache-export/tests/e2e-browser.mjsView file

12L13: import { spawn, execFileSync } from "node:child_process"; L14: import { existsSync, mkdtempSync, readdirSync, rmSync } from "node:fs";

High

Child Process

Package source references child process execution.

extensions/cache-export/tests/e2e-browser.mjsView on unpkg · L12

187const userDataDir = usesWindowsChrome L188: ? commandOutput("powershell.exe", ["-NoProfile", "-NonInteractive", "-Command", L189: "[Environment]::GetFolderPath('LocalApplicationData')"]) + `\\agent-web\\e2e-${process.pid}`

High

Findings

1 Critical7 High4 Medium5 Low

CriticalAi Agent Control Hijackscripts/install-agents.mjs

HighInstall Time Lifecycle Scriptspackage.json

HighChild Processextensions/cache-export/tests/e2e-browser.mjs

HighShellextensions/cache-export/tests/e2e-browser.mjs

HighSame File Env Network Executionskills/chrome-cdp/scripts/cdp.mjs

HighSemantic Analysis Limitedbin/pi-worktree

HighKnown Malware Source Similarityskills/chrome-cdp/scripts/cdp.mjs

HighKnown Malware Source Similarityextensions/cache-export/tests/e2e-browser.mjs

MediumNetwork

MediumEnvironment Vars

MediumShips Build Helperbin/pi-worktree-completion.bash

Affected versions and remediation

This report applies to @maxiaochao/pi-toolkit@0.5.3.

See all versions of @maxiaochao/pi-toolkit for other recorded verdicts.

Avoid installing @maxiaochao/pi-toolkit@0.5.3. Remove it from direct dependencies and check your lockfile for transitive copies.
Choose an independently verified alternative or release. This report does not establish that other versions are safe.
If this version ran, investigate the affected machine and build environment. Rotate credentials it could access and rebuild from a trusted environment.

Evidence last updated: 2026-10-11 18:08:27.798Z (UTC).

Think this verdict is wrong? Dispute it on GitHub or read how reports are produced.

AI Security Review

Decision evidence

Source & flagged code

Source & flagged code

Findings

Affected versions and remediation

Related packages

Other AI-agent control-surface risk packages

Behavioral surface

Related packages

Other AI-agent control-surface risk packages

Source & flagged code