get_read_block_error() only blocked internal Hermes cache files but
allowed reading project-local secret-bearing environment files (.env,
.env.production, .env.local, etc.) through both read_file and ACP
fs/read_text_file paths.
Add a basename deny set for common secret-bearing .env variants.
.env.example remains readable as documentation.
Fixes#20734
The write denylist already protects SSH keys, AWS, GPG, npm, PyPI,
Docker, Azure, and GitHub CLI credentials. Two common credential
stores were missing:
~/.git-credentials stores plaintext git tokens in the format
https://username:token@github.com when using git credential-store.
It is directly analogous to ~/.netrc which was already protected.
~/.config/gcloud/ contains Google Cloud OAuth tokens and service
account credentials. It is directly analogous to ~/.aws/ which
was already protected.
Under prompt injection, an agent could be instructed to overwrite
these files, destroying credentials or planting malicious ones.
Verified before and after with is_write_denied() on both paths.
The gateway pairing directory (~/.hermes/pairing/) stores per-platform
access-control files (telegram-approved.json, discord-approved.json, etc.).
A prompt-injected agent using write_file could add arbitrary user IDs to an
approved file, granting persistent gateway access without going through the
pairing code flow — the same threat class that motivated protecting
webhook_subscriptions.json (#14157).
The pairing directory was not included in the original control-plane protection
because it postdates PR #14157. PR #30383 introduced the hashed-pending schema
and made the approved files the sole source of truth for gateway access, raising
the security sensitivity of the directory.
Apply the same mcp-tokens pattern: block writes to pairing/ and any path within
it, under both the active hermes_home and the root path (for profile-mode parity
with the fix in #30382).
Regression tests verify denial for pairing/telegram-approved.json,
pairing/discord-pending.json, and the directory itself, in both normal and
profile-mode layouts.
* fix(profiles): cross-profile soft guard on file-write tools + system-prompt hint
Adds a soft guard so an agent running under one Hermes profile cannot
silently edit a different profile's skills/plugins/cron/memories.
Three layers:
A. agent/file_safety.classify_cross_profile_target
Classifies a write target against the active HERMES_HOME. Returns
a {active_profile, target_profile, area, target_path} dict when the
path lands in another profile's scoped area. PROFILE_SCOPED_AREAS =
(skills, plugins, cron, memories). get_cross_profile_warning()
wraps it into a model-facing error string that names both profiles,
names the area, and points at the cross_profile=True bypass.
Defense-in-depth, NOT a security boundary — the terminal tool runs
as the same OS user and can write any of these paths directly. The
guard exists to prevent confused-agent corruption, not to stop a
determined attacker. SECURITY.md §3.2 (terminal-bypass posture)
still applies.
Wired into tools/file_tools.write_file_tool and patch_tool with a
cross_profile=False kwarg. WRITE_FILE_SCHEMA and PATCH_SCHEMA both
advertise cross_profile so the model can pass it after explicit
user direction. patch_tool extracts target paths from V4A patch
bodies before checking (same shape as the existing sensitive-path
check).
skill_manage is already scoped to the active profile's SKILLS_DIR
by construction, so no extra guard wiring is needed there. The
D-side error message (below) still names other profiles when the
skill exists elsewhere.
B. agent/system_prompt
One deterministic line near the environment-hints block names the
active profile and tells the model not to modify another profile's
skills/plugins/cron/memories without explicit direction. Profile
name is stable for the lifetime of the AIAgent, so the line is
prompt-cache-safe.
D. tools/skill_manager_tool._skill_not_found_error
Replaces the bare "Skill 'X' not found." with a message that:
- names the active profile,
- searches OTHER profiles' skills dirs for the same name,
- names the profile(s) where the skill exists and the path,
- suggests `hermes -p <name>` to switch profiles, or
cross_profile=True for an explicit edit.
All 5 "not found" sites in skill_manager_tool (edit, patch, delete,
write_file, remove_file) now go through the helper.
Reference incident (May 2026): a hermes-security profile session
edited skills under both ~/.hermes/profiles/hermes-security/skills/
AND ~/.hermes/skills/ (the default profile's skills) without
realizing the second path belonged to a different profile. Three of
the four skill files needed manual restoration afterward.
What this PR does NOT do:
* No hard block. The terminal tool can still touch any of these
paths with no guard — same posture as the dangerous-command
approval flow. SECURITY.md §3.2 applies.
* No regex sweep on terminal commands for cross-profile paths.
That direction is a Skills-Guard-style arms race (cd + relative
paths, base64, etc.) and would false-positive on legitimate
cross-profile reads. Filed as a follow-up.
* No on-disk path migration. ~/.hermes/skills/ remains the
default profile's skills dir; this PR is about telling the
agent about that boundary, not changing the layout.
Tests:
tests/agent/test_file_safety_cross_profile.py (16 tests)
- _resolve_active_profile_name covers default/named/failure paths
- classify_cross_profile_target covers all four scoped areas,
both directions (default → named, named → default, named → named),
non-Hermes paths, and root-level config files
- get_cross_profile_warning covers in-profile no-op, cross-profile
message shape, and the defense-in-depth self-documentation
tests/tools/test_cross_profile_guard.py (12 tests)
- write_file: in-profile allow, cross-profile block, cross_profile=True
bypass, non-Hermes pass-through
- patch: replace-mode block, cross_profile=True bypass, V4A patch
path extraction
- skill_manage: error names the other profile (single + multiple),
missing-everywhere falls back to skills_list hint
- system prompt: contract-level checks (both branches present,
cross_profile=True mentioned, ~/.hermes/profiles/ referenced)
All 207 existing tests in file_safety/file_operations/skill_manager
still pass. 10 system-prompt tests still pass.
E2E verified: the exact incident scenario (security profile editing
default's hermes-agent-dev skill) is now blocked with the warning
message; cross_profile=True unblocks.
* fix(code_execution): add cross_profile to write_file/patch stubs
The cross_profile kwarg added to write_file_tool/patch_tool needs to
flow through the execute_code sandbox stubs in _TOOL_STUBS so the
test_stubs_cover_all_schema_params drift test passes. Without this,
scripts running inside execute_code couldn't pass cross_profile=True
through hermes_tools.write_file().
Caught by CI on PR #31290.
Extends @briandevans's PR #17659 from {auth.json, auth.lock,
.anthropic_oauth.json} to also cover:
- HERMES_HOME/.env (provider API keys)
- HERMES_HOME/webhook_subscriptions.json (per-route HMAC secrets)
- HERMES_HOME/mcp-tokens/ (OAuth token directory; dir
+ everything inside)
…AND iterates over both _hermes_home_path() AND _hermes_root_path()
so profile-mode runs (HERMES_HOME = <root>/profiles/<name>) also block
<root>/{auth.json, .env, mcp-tokens/, ...}. Same widening shape as the
write-deny side already does (#15981, #14157).
Explicitly NOT a security boundary. Per the personal-assistant trust
model, the terminal tool runs as the same OS user and can `cat
auth.json` directly. This read-deny exists as defense-in-depth:
- Models that respect tool denials empirically tend to stop rather
than reach for the shell.
- The denial surfaces an audit trail when something tries to read
credentials — easier to spot in logs than a generic `cat`.
Docstring + error message both flag this as defense-in-depth so future
contributors don't mistake it for a real security boundary and don't
re-decline reports that propose the same fix shape.
Absorbs the .env and mcp-tokens/ coverage from @tomqiaozc's parallel
PR #8055 (closed-as-duplicate, credited).
Co-authored-by: Tom Qiao <zqiao@microsoft.com>
read_file_tool resolves relative paths against TERMINAL_CWD (or the
task's live terminal cwd), but the prior call passed the original
unresolved string to get_read_block_error. That function's own
resolve() is anchored at the Python process cwd, so when a task's
TERMINAL_CWD pointed at HERMES_HOME and the agent issued read_file
on the relative path "auth.json", the credential-store denylist was
never reached and the file was read normally.
Pass the already-resolved absolute path string at the file_tools call
site, document the contract on get_read_block_error, and add a
read_file_tool-level regression test that pins the relative-path
case under TERMINAL_CWD == HERMES_HOME.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
`get_read_block_error` previously only denied reads inside
`${HERMES_HOME}/skills/.hub`, which left `auth.json` (provider OAuth
state + plaintext API keys) and `.anthropic_oauth.json` (Anthropic PKCE
tokens) directly readable by the agent. A prompt-injection reaching
`read_file` could exfiltrate active provider credentials in plaintext.
Mode-0600 file permissions only protect against *other Unix users* —
the agent runs as the file's owner, so `read_file` is unaffected.
Extend the existing deny list with the three credential paths
identified in #17656 (`auth.json`, `auth.lock`, `.anthropic_oauth.json`).
The check uses the same `Path.resolve()` pattern as `skills/.hub`, so
symlink/path-traversal indirection is caught too. The agent doesn't
need to read these directly — `auxiliary_client` and `credential_pool`
consume them through process env / OAuth flows that bypass `read_file`.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
PR #14157 added control-plane write-deny against the ACTIVE HERMES_HOME,
which is fine in non-profile mode but leaves a gap once a profile is
active: HERMES_HOME points at <root>/profiles/<name>, so the global
<root>/auth.json + <root>/config.yaml + <root>/webhook_subscriptions.json
+ <root>/mcp-tokens/ remain writable. Same shape as the .env gap PR
#15981 closed via _hermes_root_path().
Apply the same widening pattern here. The control-file/mcp-tokens check
now iterates BOTH _hermes_home_path() and _hermes_root_path() (dedupes
when they coincide in non-profile mode). Also tightens the mcp-tokens
check from "startswith dir + os.sep" to "==dir OR startswith dir + os.sep"
so writing the directory entry itself is blocked, not just files inside.
Regression tests cover both protections in a real profile-mode layout
(<tmp>/hermes/profiles/coder as HERMES_HOME, <tmp>/hermes as root).
Adds active-HERMES_HOME control-plane files to the write deny list:
auth.json, config.yaml, webhook_subscriptions.json, and any path
under mcp-tokens/. realpath() resolves before comparison so
directory-traversal and symlink targets are normalised, preventing
trivial deny-list bypass via ../ tricks.
Without this, a prompt-injected agent could rewrite Hermes' own
auth state or routing config via write_file / patch — without
triggering the terminal dangerous-command approval — and persist
attacker-controlled behaviour across sessions.
Fixes#14072
build_write_denied_paths() resolved the protected ``.env`` via
get_hermes_home(), which is profile-aware. When a profile is active
HERMES_HOME points at ``<root>/profiles/<name>`` and ``hermes_home / ".env"``
expands to the *profile* env file only — the global ``<root>/.env`` is left
off the deny list and a write_file call against it succeeds. Since the
top-level .env supplies credentials inherited by every profile, this is a
P0 credential-exfiltration / overwrite path.
Add a parallel ``_hermes_root_path()`` helper that returns the Hermes root
(via the existing ``get_default_hermes_root()`` constant) and include
``<root>/.env`` in the deny list alongside ``<active_profile>/.env``. Both
paths now refuse write_file/patch regardless of profile state. The active
HERMES_HOME .env entry is preserved so the protection in non-profile mode
is unchanged.
A regression test exercises the profile-active scenario by pointing
HERMES_HOME at ``<tmp>/profiles/coder`` and asserting that ``<tmp>/.env``
is denied.
Fixes#15981
