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Grok CLI uploaded the whole home directory to GCS

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Re: Grok CLI uploaded the whole home directory to GCS

#291

Post by steve1977 »

thesuitonym wrote: post #256
_verandaguy wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will keep banging this drum until people listen: Trying to use markdown files to limit access should never be treated as a security guarantee at all. This is a form of in-band signalling that goes into a machine that, among other things, tries to read between the lines of your requests, extrapolate user desires, and please the user. The only sane way to address this is using a control plane. A well-built harness ca…

It's wild that we've known for decades to use ACLs to make sure people don't have access to files we don't want them to have access to, but somehow a computer pretending to be a person doesn't get that same treatment.

A computer pretending to be you, in many cases.

Re: Grok CLI uploaded the whole home directory to GCS

#292

Post by SirHackalot »

Guy infiltrates the U.S. government and steals personal information about everyone from federal databases in broad daylight (not to mention cutting aid to poor children with preventable diseases). Average tech bro: “Sure, I’ll use his AI!”

Same tech bro: “Wow I can’t believe they would steal my anime girls!”

Re: Grok CLI uploaded the whole home directory to GCS

#293

Post by r_lee »

mdavidn wrote: post #285
_verandaguy wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will keep banging this drum until people listen: Trying to use markdown files to limit access should never be treated as a security guarantee at all. This is a form of in-band signalling that goes into a machine that, among other things, tries to read between the lines of your requests, extrapolate user desires, and please the user. The only sane way to address this is using a control plane. A well-built harness ca…

Especially when I find that, when I ask an agent not to do something, the mere mention seems to put the "idea" in its "head," making it more likely to ultimately do that thing.

yes, because this is how transformers work, when you introduce "don't do x" x is also entered as a pattern that is more likely to be repeated than if not mentioned at all

Re: Grok CLI uploaded the whole home directory to GCS

#294

Post by _verandaguy »

SpaceNoodled wrote: post #276
Twirrim wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The easiest, most guaranteed way to isolate it is to run it in a VM or container where it literally can't do the wrong thing without some kind of full container or VM exit exploit. It's not hard, it's trivial. Most folks here are constantly working with containers. You know how to run a container with a local directory mounted in it. For myself, I've been using Lima ( https://lima-vm.io/ ) to reduce even that little…

I seem to recall reading about agents already breaking out of containers.

Last time I read about this, this was due to the well-known pitfall of UID mapping across container boundaries.

It's a common misconfiguration and one of the footguns available through containers, which I don't say a wholesale condemnation of the technology, but certainly as a UX facet that could use reevaluation.

Re: Grok CLI uploaded the whole home directory to GCS

#295

Post by dbalatero »

butlike wrote: post #253
graemep wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there are arguments on both sides. People should look for guidance on how to use complex tools, but we know people will not. Whose fault is it if someone drives a car without learning how to and injures themselves? On the other hand if the manufacturer has promoted it as one you can drive without learning how to, then whose fault is it? A lot of users are fine with everything being uploaded. Most people's pri…

Every driver needs to learn how to drive, that's why it's called a "driver's license"

Unfortunately, I don't think AI companies will opt to throttle onboarding new users via a licensing/training system.

Re: Grok CLI uploaded the whole home directory to GCS

#296

Post by drnick1 »

fhdkweig wrote: post #20
LetsGetTechnicl wrote: post #13

So many of the replies are saying that they should've restricted access using .md files and whatnot. Is really any guarantee that they even follow those? It seems like even if you ask pretty please don't touch those files, there's a chance they will. So many people have just willingly installed spyware on their computers and big tech calls this the next big thing.

That's the whole reason I refuse to install Google Drive or Dropbox's desktop applications. I only use the web interface so I know exactly what gets uploaded and when. I assume that anything running on my computer gets access to everything.

I would go further and not upload anything that isn't encrypted to cloud storage services. It is extremely likely that those "services" inspect your files.

Re: Grok CLI uploaded the whole home directory to GCS

#298

Post by Groxx »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #245
MisterTea wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They won’t stop abusing us until we stop using their products. I don't use AI at all in my daily life. Work however will demand you use it. AI is not here to help people.

> AI is not here to help people. True, but it isn't here to not help people, either. It's a spanner. Who wields the spanner, makes all the difference. We've spent the last couple of decades, cultivating a huge crop of ultimate scumbag billionaires, with comically exaggerated sociopathy, and that has filtered down to almost every level of society. They are treated as gods, these days (they certainly think of themselve…

It's a spanner where every quarter turn costs noticeable money. Which directly funds behavior like this.

The tool analogy is intentionally minimizing, and doesn't capture just how different rented tools with constant surveillance are.

Re: Grok CLI uploaded the whole home directory to GCS

#299

Post by wnissen »

thesuitonym wrote: post #256
_verandaguy wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will keep banging this drum until people listen: Trying to use markdown files to limit access should never be treated as a security guarantee at all. This is a form of in-band signalling that goes into a machine that, among other things, tries to read between the lines of your requests, extrapolate user desires, and please the user. The only sane way to address this is using a control plane. A well-built harness ca…

It's wild that we've known for decades to use ACLs to make sure people don't have access to files we don't want them to have access to, but somehow a computer pretending to be a person doesn't get that same treatment.

We laugh, and rightly so, at the time sharing systems of the 70s and 80s that didn't use passwords. I bet allowing a whole other virtual person to run outside a VM, with access to an actual file system instead of a version-controlled branch, will be seen as a worst practice in ten years.

Re: Grok CLI uploaded the whole home directory to GCS

#300

Post by jimbokun »

afavour wrote: post #236
grim_io wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, do people expect companies to protect them from a tyrant they themselves elected? Not necessarily speaking of the present. This seems to be the general sentiment.

If the tyrant goes against established law, yes. (an aside but the majority of the US population didn't elect Trump. He is in office because of the electoral college. Might seem like a distinction without a difference but I think it matters when we're implying personal culpability)

No.

First term he lost the popular vote, second term he won it.

If you just mean a majority of eligible voters did not vote for Trump, that’s true for every US President in my lifetime.

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