hermes-agent/SECURITY_MITIGATION_ROADMAP.md

SECURITY MITIGATION ROADMAP

Hermes Agent Security Remediation Plan

Version: 1.0
Date: March 30, 2026
Status: Draft for Implementation

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This roadmap provides a structured approach to addressing the 32 security vulnerabilities identified in the comprehensive security audit. The plan is organized into four phases, prioritizing fixes by risk and impact.

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PHASE 1: CRITICAL FIXES (Week 1-2)

Target: Eliminate all CVSS 9.0+ vulnerabilities

1.1 Remove shell=True Subprocess Calls (V-001)

Owner: Security Team Lead
Estimated Effort: 16 hours
Priority: P0

Tasks:

• Audit all subprocess calls in codebase
• Replace shell=True with argument lists
• Implement shlex.quote for necessary string interpolation
• Add input validation wrappers

Files to Modify:

• tools/terminal_tool.py
• tools/file_operations.py
• tools/environments/docker.py
• tools/environments/modal.py
• tools/environments/ssh.py
• tools/environments/singularity.py

Testing:

• Unit tests for all command execution paths
• Fuzzing with malicious inputs
• Penetration testing

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1.2 Implement Strict Path Sandboxing (V-002)

Owner: Security Team Lead
Estimated Effort: 12 hours
Priority: P0

Tasks:

• Create PathValidator class
• Implement canonical path resolution
• Add path traversal detection
• Enforce sandbox root boundaries

Implementation:

class PathValidator:
    def __init__(self, sandbox_root: Path):
        self.sandbox_root = sandbox_root.resolve()
    
    def validate(self, user_path: str) -> Path:
        expanded = Path(user_path).expanduser().resolve()
        if not str(expanded).startswith(str(self.sandbox_root)):
            raise SecurityError("Path outside sandbox")
        return expanded

Files to Modify:

• tools/file_operations.py
• tools/file_tools.py
• All environment implementations

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1.3 Fix Secret Leakage in Child Processes (V-003)

Owner: Security Engineer
Estimated Effort: 8 hours
Priority: P0

Tasks:

• Create environment variable whitelist
• Implement secret detection patterns
• Add env var scrubbing for child processes
• Audit credential file mounting

Whitelist Approach:

_ALLOWED_ENV_VARS = frozenset([
    "PATH", "HOME", "USER", "LANG", "LC_ALL",
    "TERM", "SHELL", "PWD", "OLDPWD",
    "PYTHONPATH", "PYTHONHOME", "PYTHONNOUSERSITE",
    "DISPLAY", "XDG_SESSION_TYPE",  # GUI apps
])

def sanitize_environment():
    return {k: v for k, v in os.environ.items() 
            if k in _ALLOWED_ENV_VARS}

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1.4 Add Connection-Level URL Validation (V-005)

Owner: Security Engineer
Estimated Effort: 8 hours
Priority: P0

Tasks:

• Implement egress proxy option
• Add connection-level IP validation
• Validate redirect targets
• Block private IP ranges at socket level

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PHASE 2: HIGH PRIORITY (Week 3-4)

Target: Address all CVSS 7.0-8.9 vulnerabilities

2.1 Implement Input Validation Framework (V-006, V-007)

Owner: Senior Developer
Estimated Effort: 20 hours
Priority: P1

Tasks:

• Create Pydantic models for all tool inputs
• Implement length validation
• Add character allowlisting
• Create validation decorators

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2.2 Fix CORS Configuration (V-008)

Owner: Backend Developer
Estimated Effort: 4 hours
Priority: P1

Changes:

• Remove wildcard support when credentials enabled
• Implement strict origin validation
• Add origin allowlist configuration

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2.3 Fix Authentication Bypass (V-009)

Owner: Backend Developer
Estimated Effort: 4 hours
Priority: P1

Changes:

# Fail-closed default
if not self._api_key:
    logger.error("API server requires authentication")
    return web.json_response(
        {"error": "Authentication required"},
        status=401
    )

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2.4 Fix OAuth State Validation (V-014)

Owner: Security Engineer
Estimated Effort: 6 hours
Priority: P1

Tasks:

• Store state parameter in session
• Cryptographically verify callback state
• Implement state expiration

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2.5 Add Rate Limiting (V-016)

Owner: Backend Developer
Estimated Effort: 10 hours
Priority: P1

Implementation:

• Per-IP rate limiting: 100 requests/minute
• Per-user rate limiting: 1000 requests/hour
• Endpoint-specific limits
• Sliding window algorithm

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2.6 Secure Credential Storage (V-019, V-031)

Owner: Security Engineer
Estimated Effort: 12 hours
Priority: P1

Tasks:

• Implement OS keychain integration
• Add file encryption at rest
• Implement secure key derivation
• Add access audit logging

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PHASE 3: MEDIUM PRIORITY (Month 2)

Target: Address CVSS 4.0-6.9 vulnerabilities

3.1 Expand Dangerous Command Patterns (V-018)

Owner: Security Engineer
Estimated Effort: 6 hours
Priority: P2

Add Patterns:

• More encoding variants (base64, hex, unicode)
• Alternative shell syntaxes
• Indirect command execution
• Environment variable abuse

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3.2 Add AST-Based Skill Scanning (V-011)

Owner: Security Engineer
Estimated Effort: 16 hours
Priority: P2

Implementation:

• Parse Python code to AST
• Detect dangerous function calls
• Analyze import statements
• Check for obfuscation patterns

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3.3 Implement Subagent Isolation (V-024)

Owner: Senior Developer
Estimated Effort: 20 hours
Priority: P2

Tasks:

• Create isolated filesystem per subagent
• Implement network namespace isolation
• Add resource limits
• Implement subagent-to-subagent communication restrictions

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3.4 Add Comprehensive Audit Logging (V-013, V-020, V-027)

Owner: DevOps Engineer
Estimated Effort: 12 hours
Priority: P2

Requirements:

• Log all tool invocations
• Log all authentication events
• Log configuration changes
• Implement log integrity protection
• Add SIEM integration hooks

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PHASE 4: LONG-TERM IMPROVEMENTS (Month 3+)

4.1 Security Headers Hardening (V-028)

Owner: Backend Developer
Estimated Effort: 4 hours

Add headers:

• Content-Security-Policy
• Strict-Transport-Security
• X-Frame-Options
• X-XSS-Protection

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4.2 Code Signing Verification (V-026)

Owner: Security Engineer
Estimated Effort: 8 hours

• Require GPG signatures for binaries
• Implement signature verification
• Pin trusted signing keys

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4.3 Supply Chain Security

Owner: DevOps Engineer
Estimated Effort: 12 hours

• Implement dependency scanning
• Add SLSA compliance
• Use private package registry
• Implement SBOM generation

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4.4 Automated Security Testing

Owner: QA Lead
Estimated Effort: 16 hours

• Integrate SAST tools (Semgrep, Bandit)
• Add DAST to CI/CD
• Implement fuzzing
• Add security regression tests

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IMPLEMENTATION TRACKING

Week	Deliverables	Owner	Status
1	P0 Fixes: V-001, V-002	Security Team	⏳ Planned
1	P0 Fixes: V-003, V-005	Security Team	⏳ Planned
2	P0 Testing & Validation	QA Team	⏳ Planned
3	P1 Fixes: V-006 through V-010	Dev Team	⏳ Planned
3	P1 Fixes: V-014, V-016	Dev Team	⏳ Planned
4	P1 Testing & Documentation	QA/Doc Team	⏳ Planned
5-8	P2 Fixes Implementation	Dev Team	⏳ Planned
9-12	P3/P4 Long-term Improvements	All Teams	⏳ Planned

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SUCCESS METRICS

Security Metrics

• Zero CVSS 9.0+ vulnerabilities
• < 5 CVSS 7.0-8.9 vulnerabilities
• 100% of subprocess calls without shell=True
• 100% path validation coverage
• 100% input validation on tool entry points

Compliance Metrics

• OWASP Top 10 compliance
• CWE coverage > 90%
• Security test coverage > 80%

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RISK ACCEPTANCE

Vulnerability	Risk	Justification	Approver
V-029 (Version Info)	Low	Required for debugging	TBD
V-030 (Dead Code)	Low	Cleanup in next refactor	TBD

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APPENDIX: TOOLS AND RESOURCES

Recommended Security Tools

1. SAST: Semgrep, Bandit, Pylint-security
2. DAST: OWASP ZAP, Burp Suite
3. Dependency: Safety, Snyk, Dependabot
4. Secrets: GitLeaks, TruffleHog
5. Fuzzing: Atheris, Hypothesis

Training Resources

• OWASP Top 10 for Python
• Secure Coding in Python (SANS)
• AWS Security Best Practices

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Document Owner: Security Team
Review Cycle: Monthly during remediation, Quarterly post-completion