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Microsoft's open source tools were hacked to steal passwords of AI developers

techcrunch.com

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Re: Microsoft's open source tools were hacked to steal passwords of AI developers

#91

Post by 63stack »

themafia wrote: post #63
graemep wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nobody should do 'npm install' or 'pip install' on their machine. What alternative do you suggest? Do you mean not install outside a sandbox?

Download source. Extract. Move files to correct node_modules folder. If your distribution requires more than this, then it's not really a module, or combines too many non-modular components, and should be distributed differently. The ability for npm to run scripts on any level should be removed. Then we can go back to worrying about namespacing issues.

You discovered what web development was like in early 2000.

Re: Microsoft's open source tools were hacked to steal passwords of AI developers

#92

Post by RetroTechie »

narrator wrote: post #21
nDRDY wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are ever-faster approaching the Anti Singularity, the moment when everything "tech" implodes and progress screeches to a halt.

What if this is "The Great Filter?" [Ominous music plays in the background]

That would be when we've automated stuff to the point where [machinery breaking down] causes a large majority of humans to die from starvation.

And then go on to repeat that mistake by re-building without using the lessons from previous catastrophe(s).

Sadly that last part sounds fairly common for humans... 8-|

So yeah. Maybe. Possible.

Re: Microsoft's open source tools were hacked to steal passwords of AI developers

#93

Post by repelsteeltje »

_pdp_ wrote: post #59
altairprime wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the theory here that the browser cannot be co-opted to infect web-based repositories? Also: thinking of how yt-dlp can integrate with browser cookies now and the malware paths that opens up. (This is part of why Chrome wants HSM cookies, I expect: DRM and opsec!)

In this scenario the malware will not be on the device but in an isolated dev environment on a remote machine. So it will have access to whatever was configured in that repo but hopefully the project is isolated enough to ensure containment and prevent cross-pollination.

I don't think the cloud (someone else's computer) is the best solution. The sanitation problem can be mitigated by compartimentization but the cloud aspect also adds brittleness and new attack vectors.

Why not set up proper containers (or VMs) locally? And why not wait a little till local LLMs catch up?

Maybe just a personal itch, but having your dev environment elsewhere feels so gross to me..

Re: Microsoft's open source tools were hacked to steal passwords of AI developers

#94

Post by aaaronic »

natebc wrote: post #67
narrator wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if this is "The Great Filter?" [Ominous music plays in the background]

We've got a few candidates for that on the go and this is for sure one of them.

It's not like they're mutually exclusive. In fact, multiple candidates seem to be quite sympathetic in their feedback loops.

Re: Microsoft's open source tools were hacked to steal passwords of AI developers

#96

Post by wartywhoa23 »

_pdp_ wrote: post #13

What follows next is purely speculation and it is based on my own observations and thoughts but based on what I've seen the old RBAC models, while being almost broken before, now it is fully broken, with the fact that now coding assistants and engineers are working on multiple unrelated projects simultaneously - especially working on wild experiments they had no time for previously. The risk of supply chain issue has…

> Now in many places it is encouraged by coders and managers to vibe stuff on their own devices. Soon or later it will become a problem, especially for those that have no idea what they are doing.

Idiots must suffer.

Re: Microsoft's open source tools were hacked to steal passwords of AI developers

#97

Post by etiennebausson »

notnaut wrote: post #87
red_admiral wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It feels to me like AI agents should be their own security principals and use access tokens generated speficically for them on the repos or orgs that they need access to. Handing an AI agent an access token "minted" for a human's account feels to me like the new "write the password on a post-it".

As long as there’s a way to deterministically tie a model call to a human user. I think a loss of culpability is something some companies are afraid of to some extent.

Loss of liability is what company are built for, see the meaning of LLC as an exemple.

Of course, it is only their employees that are impacted instead of their bottom line, they might be more tolerant?

Re: Microsoft's open source tools were hacked to steal passwords of AI developers

#98

Post by sourcegrift »

dgellow wrote: post #24
bilekas wrote: post #18

The phrasing of the title is loaded and the content phrases it as some kind of fault of open source. Then, which I find the most amusing, proceeds to blame MicroSlop for the attempted suuply chain attack, > Microsoft did not immediately provide the specific number of customers affected, when asked by TechCrunch. Yeah, because that's how open source works. Tech crunch doing hard work no not explain that. > This is Mic…

TechCrunch is very sloppy and unreliable. I’ve seen them reporting on things I worked on where they just invented facts for SEO purpose and there is no way to get them to correct

Which is worse tc or verge? Verge does similar making up of facts.

Re: Microsoft's open source tools were hacked to steal passwords of AI developers

#99

Post by greggroth »

63stack wrote: post #89
_pdp_ wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think web-based IDEs like GitHub Codespaces (but even VSCode with tunnels) is part of the solution because at the very least you can get an isolated dev environment per project. I've been advocating for this for as long as I remember. Unfortunately, most developers don't like them so it is a though sell.

Why do most developers not like it? Is it because the browser is a terrible platform for text editors since there is no proper key mapping, or access to proper debuggers, or there is too much latency, and no access to cli tools? You make it sound like you are surprised, but everyone who has tried this knows it's crap and a band aid at best.

I hope folks know they can use Codespaces in their desktop editor. I never use the web editor.

Re: Microsoft's open source tools were hacked to steal passwords of AI developers

#100

Post by silon42 »

red_admiral wrote: post #84
bob1029 wrote: post #20

I strongly suspect this is a case of classic personal access tokens being used in an unclean way. If you are going to be handing tokens to AI agents on weird openclaw contraptions, you should try to use the fine grained variants. My GitHub account spans 3 organizations with wildly differing policies. The fact that classic tokens are even still allowed blows my mind a bit. You should be required to manually opt in eac…

It feels to me like AI agents should be their own security principals and use access tokens generated speficically for them on the repos or orgs that they need access to. Handing an AI agent an access token "minted" for a human's account feels to me like the new "write the password on a post-it".

Not just AI agents... basically, if you cd Projects/foo, that should be it's own user (for running npm, etc) that should not have access to parent user data (probably including github tokens, etc).
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