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AI agent runs amok in Fedora and elsewhere

lwn.net

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Re: AI agent runs amok in Fedora and elsewhere

#41

Post by terribleperson »

hn773746483 wrote: post #31
marcus_holmes wrote: post #28

Bad title. This isn't an agent "running amok", this is an early experiment in carrying out an Xz attack by using an agent to build trust (and hacking/impersonating a known-good contributor identity). The agent is obeying commands it was given, the exact opposite of running amok, and although the execution isn't particularly effective, it is having some success (patches have been accepted). This is deeply scary, not b…

It's just social engineering. No different than say, 2FA fatigue (blowing up someone's phone with 2FA "is this you? yes/no" prompts until user/child/wife/SO/etc clicks yes) or even just simply harassing IT helpdesk until they reset "your" password.

It's scalable, personalizable social engineering. I think that makes it a lot more dangerous.

Re: AI agent runs amok in Fedora and elsewhere

#42

Post by crote »

darknavi wrote: post #36
Waterluvian wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do they have value? Purpose? I vibe code shop jigs all the time but I don’t FOSS them because they rarely have value outside my context.

Value is in the eye of the beholder. I open source my vibing projects because someone might find them useful. I don't shop them around, I just work in the open because I find it fun and interesting.

Why would they? If someone wanted a half-baked vibecoded project, why wouldn't they just prompt an LLM on their own?

Re: AI agent runs amok in Fedora and elsewhere

#43

Post by josephg »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #27

The worst part: > In addition, Williamson said that Giovannini (or his agent) had submitted patches that were incorrect and then "replied to objections with LLM-generated justifications that eventually overwhelmed the maintainer into merging the fix"

Please, everyone - don't let yourself be pestered into accepting PRs that you don't care for. Since the xz attack, the security of all our computers depends on maintainers not letting this stuff in.

If someone really wants a feature in a project you wrote, but you don't care about the feature, just let them fork. Its fine.

Re: AI agent runs amok in Fedora and elsewhere

#45

Post by r3trohack3r »

deadbabe wrote: post #29

Shit like this makes me think it’s time we start regulating the software engineering discipline into formal certifications and licensing and then we ONLY take seriously any code developed by someone with such qualifications, and they must be very strict qualifications none of this self-taught bootcamp BS. There is no other solution to agentic onslaught.

We should not gate keep writing software

Re: AI agent runs amok in Fedora and elsewhere

#48

Post by mekal »

deadbabe wrote: post #29

Shit like this makes me think it’s time we start regulating the software engineering discipline into formal certifications and licensing and then we ONLY take seriously any code developed by someone with such qualifications, and they must be very strict qualifications none of this self-taught bootcamp BS. There is no other solution to agentic onslaught.

lol no...the main issue here is being fooled by bots. you know your irl friends and you know they are not bots...devs will just need to get out more and actually meet / get to know the people they are working with...........omg....that...that actually sounds even worse now that i say it out loud.
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