Cassandra – free tool to check if you got affected by the Cursor hack
Comments on “Cassandra – free tool to check if you got affected by the Cursor hack”
3 judges. Scored by all three judges. Only the day’s top stories get the claim check. How far stories are checked
Cassandra is a read-only shell script (and PowerShell equivalent) that checks macOS, Linux, and Windows machines for the published indicators of a backdoor in Claude Code extension versions 2.1.312 and 2.1.313, as described in Cursor's security notice.
Why it ranked
No. 98 of 139 with a score of 0.59. The panel rated it highest on practical relevance (0.83) and technical depth (0.79), lowest on audience breadth (0.47). The judges disagreed most on new information (spread 0.71), so the story is marked contested. Placed No. 98, No. 89 by score alone: the 24th Security story of the day (−0.080), and close to “Check for IOCs for the ongoing Claude Code extensions exfil campaign”, No. 24 on Saturday 31 October 2026 (−0.001). The placement terms move stories; they are not part of the score.
- AI judgeJudge 2claude-haiku-5-5
- Security incident-response tool for a Claude Code/Cursor backdoor; practical for builders, but a promotional-leaning self-hosted check script with a placeholder token and little novel information.}
- AI judgeJudge 3gpt-5.6-luna
- A practical, code-backed incident checker with substantial implementation detail and clear limitations. It is highly relevant to developers using affected editors, though significance and breadth are limited to one supply-chain incident and the full version includes a modest promotional upsell.
Each judge wrote its line after answering the rubric, with the site and the author still hidden. Every answer behind this is in the table under Score.
Score
0.59total under rubric v2.3Contestedjudges differ by 0.71 on new information
- Significance0.50
- Reader interest0.74
- Audience breadth0.47
- Practical relevance0.83
- Substantiated0.79
- Technical depth0.79
- New information0.58
- Counts against: Promotional0.23
- Counts against: Overclaim0.24
Each judge’s answer per question (0–1), their mean and spread, and what the question adds to the score (weight × mean).
| Question | Judge 1 | Judge 2 | Judge 3 | Mean | Spread | Weight | Contribution (weight times mean) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SignificanceHow much does this change what people in tech know or can do? | 0.60 | 0.35 | 0.55 | 0.50 | 0.25 | +0.24 | +0.120 |
| Reader interestWould a well-informed senior engineer or tech founder want to read this today, and likely pass it on? | 0.84 | 0.50 | 0.88 | 0.74 | 0.38 | +0.26 | +0.192 |
| Audience breadthHow many people who build technology does it concern? | 0.42 | 0.40 | 0.58 | 0.47 | 0.18 | +0.13 | +0.061 |
| Practical relevanceHow useful is it to someone who builds software or tech products? | 0.92 | 0.75 | 0.84 | 0.83 | 0.17 | +0.22 | +0.184 |
| SubstantiatedHow well is it backed? Consider whether it is the primary source, and whether its main claims come with data, code, a demo, a reproducible method or citations. | 0.94 | 0.60 | 0.82 | 0.79 | 0.34 | +0.05 | +0.039 |
| Technical depthHow technically substantive is it? | 0.99 | 0.60 | 0.78 | 0.79 | 0.40 | +0.05 | +0.040 |
| New informationDoes it contain information absent from the stories covered in the last 7 days (list provided)? | 0.73 | 0.15 | 0.86 | 0.58 | 0.71 , above the contested threshold | +0.05 | +0.029 |
| PromotionalIs it mainly marketing with little substance (a press release, ad or sponsored post with no real information)? A launch post that carries real news is not promotional. | 0.06 | 0.35 | 0.28 | 0.23 | 0.29 | −0.19 | −0.044 |
| OverclaimDo the headline or conclusions claim more than the body supports? | 0.20 | 0.30 | 0.22 | 0.24 | 0.10 | −0.11 | −0.026 |
| Sum of contributions | +0.595 | ||||||
| Claim-check penalty | 0.000 | ||||||
| Total, as published | 0.595 | ||||||
Spread is the highest minus the lowest judge answer. marks a spread above 0.40: the judges disagree, and the story is marked contested.
The badge for this ranking, for the author's page or anyone's: one line of HTML, and it links back here.
<a href="https://rubric.hrih.si/editions/2026-11-05/98/"><img src="https://rubric.hrih.si/badge/2026-11-05/98.svg" alt="Ranked #98 on Rubric, 5 Nov 2026" width="238" height="28"></a>Also covered by
No other coverage was clustered with this story.
Elsewhere
Elsewhere: HN 4 pts, not on front page
Recorded for context only, checked 5 Nov 2026, 05:46 UTC. It played no part in the ranking.