"Alexa, Is Dynamic Content Safe?" Understanding the Risks of Dynamic Content in the Alexa Skill Ecosystem

Despite the increasing popularity of voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa, the security implications of dynamic skill content (content modifiable without resubmission) in voice assistant skills (voice-activated applications) remain largely unexplored. This paper presents the first large-scale analysis of Alexa's dynamic content ecosystem using D-Explorer, a ChatGPT powered chatbot. From a dataset of 10,407 skill interactions, we investigate: 1) the mechanisms of Alexa dynamic content, 2) the associated security risks, and 3) the prevalence of these risks in published skills. Our analysis reveals that 34% of skills contain dynamic content in interactions, 95% access external resources (increasing attack vectors), 7% of skill conversations exhibit problematic (potentially harmful or privacy-infringing) interactions related to dynamic content, and 90% of skills connect to a potentially vulnerable dynamic resource during interaction. These findings expose significant vulnerabilities, highlighting the critical need for stricter developer rules and security measures to prevent unpredictable, harmful, and privacy compromising interactions within the Alexa skill ecosystem.