Significant-Gravitas / Significant-Gravitas/AutoGPT

Suggestion: add authority check before browser automation in copilot tools

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#13,635 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
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Python
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Description

Hi team, I was testing a static-analysis scanner ([actenon-scan](https://github.com/Actenon/actenon-scan)) that looks for "execution gaps" in AI-agent code: places where a consequential action is reachable from an agent tool boundary without a preceding authority check.

The scanner flagged BrowserActTool._execute() in copilot/tools/agent_browser.py because it executes arbitrary browser actions (navigate, click, fill, type) via the agent-browser subprocess, and there's no explicit authority/permission check on the path from the agent to the subprocess call.

To be clear: this may be intentional, the tool already has an auth gate (requires_auth property on BaseTool) and the Claude Agent SDK handles approval at a higher level. But the scanner can't see that from the code path alone, and it raised a fair question about defense-in-depth.

If you're interested, the pattern we've been working on (and what the scanner recommends as a fix) is a proof-bound authority check before the consequential call:

# Before the subprocess call:
from actenon import verify_proof
verify_proof(action="browser_navigate", target=url)

This is not a vulnerability report, I'm sharing this as the author of actenon-scan, dogfooding the tool on real agent codebases. Happy to discuss if useful.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Read copilot/tools/agent_browser.py, focusing on BrowserActTool._execute() and BaseTool's requires_auth path; trace how the agent-browser subprocess is reached and how approval is handled. Done means the project has an agreed defense-in-depth authority check, or a documented rationale for not adding one, with the resulting behavior verified.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
ai, security
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
38/100

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