/vulnerability-validation

name: vulnerability-validation
description: Validate security findings for exploitability, reachability, and real-world impact using Bug Hunter-native findings artifacts. Use after security scans, before patch generation, or whenever the user wants confirmation that a suspected vulnerability is actually exploitable.

Vulnerability Validation

This is a bundled local Bug Hunter companion skill. It strengthens the security-specific parts of the Skeptic/Referee process.

Purpose

Take suspected or confirmed security findings and answer:

• Is the vulnerable path reachable?
• Can an attacker control the input?
• Are there existing mitigations?
• How exploitable is it really?
• What is the CVSS / PoC / impact level?

Inputs

Prefer Bug Hunter-native artifacts:

• `.bug-hunter/hunter-findings.json`
• `.bug-hunter/threat-model.md`
• `.bug-hunter/security-config.json`
• `.bug-hunter/dep-findings.json` when dependency issues are involved

Workflow

1. Read the findings and isolate the security ones. 2. Trace reachability:

• EXTERNAL
• AUTHENTICATED
• INTERNAL
• UNREACHABLE

3. Trace exploitability:

• EASY
• MEDIUM
• HARD
• NOT_EXPLOITABLE

4. Check for mitigations already present in code, framework behavior, or deployment assumptions. 5. For confirmed HIGH/CRITICAL security bugs, generate:

• exploitation path
• benign proof of concept
• CVSS vector + score

6. Feed the result back into Bug Hunter-native verdicting.

Outputs

When used as a companion to the main pipeline, keep outputs compatible with:

• `.bug-hunter/referee.json`
• `.bug-hunter/report.md`

If a separate validation artifact is helpful for the run, place it under `.bug-hunter/validated-findings.json`.

Important constraints

• This skill validates findings; it does not replace the normal fix pipeline.
• Keep outputs portable and self-contained under `.bug-hunter/`.
• Prefer explicit reasoning for false positives so the user can trust dismissals.