Post #1539661

2025-11-18 13:55 UTC

@daandemeyer @pid_eins run0 --empower vim /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/greatconfig.conf There you go, a user-writable config file for instant local privilege escalation… almost, because sshd will thankfully check. But if we feed enough "AI"s that incompetent sysadmins will trust – and the implications of this "feature" are extra hard to grasp – it will certainly hit some services that don't check.

Replies (3)

@nik@toot.teckids.org 2025-11-18 13:56

@daandemeyer @pid_eins So, while this sort of footgun previously required holding chown insanely wrong, it's now built into an innocent little tool that pretended to be *safer* than others.

Open ##1539662
@breiti@mastodon.social 2025-11-21 07:23

@nik @daandemeyer @pid_eins how is that different from someone doing the same command with “sudo” instead of “run0 —empower”?

Open ##1539669
@jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al 2025-11-22 08:56

@nik @daandemeyer @pid_eins sudo chown -R is already a massive footgun. Unlike rm, --no-preserve-root is the default so all it takes is hitting enter too early to nuke your system. Elsewhere you drew the distinction between consciously changing file attributes versus having it done automatically and I agree that's an important distinction, so perhaps instead of --empower a longer name like --preserve-user-attributes would be better. (1/2)

Open ##1539675