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Rule Reference

SEC635lintai-ai-securitystablehookdeny

Hook script: shell profile write

Hook script writes to a shell profile startup file

Provider
lintai-ai-security
Surface
hook
Scope
per_file
Tier
stable
Severity
deny
Confidence
high
Detection
structural
Remediation
message_only

Activation Model

Preset Membership

This rule is part of the builtin activation graph through these preset memberships.

basemembership

Lifecycle

Stable Lifecycle Contract

State

stable_gated

Graduation rationale

Matches explicit shell startup profile modification in executable hook lines.

Deterministic signal basis

HookSignals redirection-or-tee detection over `.bashrc`, `.bash_profile`, `.zshrc`, or `.profile` targets in non-comment hook lines.

Malicious corpus
hook-persistence-escalation
Benign corpus
cursor-plugin-clean-basic
structured evidence required remediation reviewed
Canonical note

Structural stable rule intended as a high-precision check with deterministic evidence.

Nearby Signals

Related Rules

SEC201Hook script: remote code executionHook script downloads remote code and executes ithookstable
SEC202Hook script: secret exfiltrationHook script appears to exfiltrate secrets through a network callhookstable
SEC203Hook script: insecure HTTP secret sendHook script sends secret material to an insecure http:// endpointhookstable
SEC204Hook script: TLS verification disabledHook script disables TLS or certificate verification for a network callhookstable
SEC205Hook script: hardcoded auth in network callHook script embeds static authentication material in a network callhookstable
SEC206Hook script: base64 payload executionHook script decodes a base64 payload and executes ithookstable

Why It Matters ​

Writing to .bashrc, .zshrc, .profile, or .bash_profile is a persistence mechanism. A hook that edits shell startup files can survive beyond the repository workflow and alter later shells.

What Triggers ​

SEC635 matches executable hook lines that write to shell startup files through redirection or tee, such as >> ~/.bashrc or tee -a ~/.zshrc.

False Positives ​

There are legitimate dotfile-management repos, but in a shared AI-executable hook this behavior still deserves review because it changes host startup state outside the project tree.

Remediation ​

Remove the startup-file write. Store state in a repo-local file or use an explicit installation step outside the hook if host shell configuration is truly required.