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I think it's both, take a look at the "status" field with states like "unreviewed" - there's some kind of submission process, and OpenAI curate what actually ma
by bri3d 4y ago
I think it's both, take a look at the "status" field with states like "unreviewed" - there's some kind of submission process, and OpenAI curate what actually makes it to the "user market." This just bypasses all filters, showing plugins that aren't ready for submission, submitted but not approved - just everything that's in the `plugins` table in the application, really.
Pretty much any business who accept user-generated plugins follow this same process, so I struggle to find much nefarious there (unlike some others in this discussion thread).
What is silly is that the server will gladly execute plugins for a "normal" end user that aren't in the correct state. That's a classic application security fail.
- IanCal 4y ago> What is silly is that the server will gladly execute plugins for a "normal" end user that aren't in the correct state. That's a classic application security fail. Can you explain what the security issue is here? The normal user modifies requests, chooses to use an unreleased plugin, then...?
- tofuahdude 4y agoThen they're able to use an unreleased plugin. A user being able to do something that the company intends to prevent is a vulnerability.
- thiht 4y agoOr maybe they don't care if users use unreleased plugins because there's no security implications.
- jacquesm 4y agoThen there would be no need for an approval process. So likely there are security implications, just not ones that we are aware of. Otherwise someone would have surely optimized out the approval process because it costs time & effort, so money.
- ohgodplsno 4y agoOr it's merely a matter of curation and OpenAI would rather only display a plugin if it knows it's going to work, rather than any plugin written in three minutes by a high schooler that just turns your text into a spooky zalgo?
- IanCal 4y agoYou want to curate what your users see, and check that new users coming in don't have their first experience be terrible plugins as they may not come back.
- ohgodplsno 4y agoAh yes, the user that modifies requests then gets to use an unreleased plug-in, which is a vulnerability because... The user could then ask to use a plugin that will return useless info? Pray tell what a client side only tool that you have to modify requests to access will do that is dangerous?
- dragonwriter 4y ago> The user could then ask to use a plugin that will return useless info? Plugins don’t just “return data” they perform arbitrary actions. [0] “Unreleased” presumably in some cases means “not adequately tested” regarding the instructions to the model as to when and how to use the API that the plugin wraps. An ubreleased plugin is effectively untested code wrapping an exposed, possibly read/write, API. [0] examples given on the OpenAI plugins docs website include “booking a flight, ordering food, etc.”
- ohgodplsno 4y agoSo, let's get this straight. You modify the request made, to display unverified plugins. You turn one on (at random ? You just see a plugin that tells you they're going to invest all of your money in an ETF and give you 300%, and you just click it ?) You give that plugin everything it needs to interact with the things that matter. You let it login to your bank account and your Robinhood account. Then you get surprised when "untested" or harmful code gets executed when you run the hidden plugin ? Do you blame the person who gave you a knife and told you to only use it on vegetables when you cut yourself trying to cut a slab of metal ?
- dragonwriter 4y agoIf I’m the plugin supplier and OpenAI tells me they are going to impose limits to a group of <15 testers that I’ve cleared (all of whom are either internal or under contract), and then I’ve got to deal with external users using the unreleased plugin and causing fallout, I’m going to blame OpenAI for lying to me. (Of course, to be fair, the basic model OpenAI uses creates exposure that doesn't even go through OpenAI, which would worry me from the start, and really dedicated API users could just implement ReAct and their own actions against any API, but that's higher effort and not particularly facilitated by OpenAI.)
- IanCal 4y agoIf the company has a publicly specified API and they don't want anyone to call it and don't put any measures around that, surely that's the security issue. The plugins aren't code, they're a pointer to a public document with a link to your companies API.
- dragonwriter 4y ago> The plugins aren't code Effectively, they are—they are API pointers, sure, but also instructions to the AI model on how and when to use the API. That part is, effectively, code, and in an unreleased plugin its code that likely isn’t fully tested to the plugib supplier’s satisfaction to be ready for use outside of the limited set of testers. That’s the whole point of the limited test process, to allow getting the instructions right before exposingthe plugin to general use.
- IanCal 4y agoThe API, API docs and the pointer to them are all fully public. The user who deliberately hacks their way into using a test plugin and sees bad results is going to see bad results but that's not a security problem.
- dragonwriter 4y ago> The API, API docs and the pointer to them are all fully public. Yeah, the basic model (because it involves publicly publishing untested instructions, which amount to code) is a security problem for the plugin supplier. OpenAI not doing server-side validation of the closed-test-groups that it advertises for unreleased plugins magnifies the risk, but eliminating it wouldn't eliminate the fundamental problem entirely. (The OpenAI failure here isn't failing the end user, its failing what they represent to the plugin supplier.)
- IanCal 4y agoYou can and should implement auth on those endpoints if you have any concern about them being accessed.
- bri3d 4y agoPresumably, OpenAI tell their partners and customers who are developing plugins that those plugins will be confidential and not accessible to end-users until they are released. This breaks that confidentiality.
- IanCal 4y agoSure, though the manifests and specs are public as far as I know, but confidentiality is a very different thing to a security issue.