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I saw that but here’s an alternative take on what happened: While the session file definitely shows the AI agent using sudo, these commands were executed with
by dazzaji 2y ago
I saw that but here’s an alternative take on what happened:
While the session file definitely shows the AI agent using sudo, these commands were executed with the presumption that the user session already had sudo privileges. There is no indication that the agent escalated its privileges on its own; rather, it used existing permissions that the user (buck) already had access to.
The sudo usage here is consistent with executing commands that require elevated privileges, but it doesn’t demonstrate any unauthorized or unexpected privilege escalation or a self-promotion to sysadmin. It relied on the user’s permissions and would have required the user’s password if prompted.
So he sudo commands executed successfully without any visible prompt for a password, which suggests one of the following scenarios:
1. The session was started by a user with sudo privileges (buck), allowing the agent to run sudo commands without requiring additional authentication.
2. The password may have been provided earlier in the session (before the captured commands), and the session is still within the sudo timeout window, meaning no re-authentication was needed.
3. Or maybe the sudoers file on this system was configured to allow passwordless sudo for the user buck, making it unnecessary to re-enter the password (I just discovered this one, actually!).
In any case, the key point is that the session already had the required privileges to run these commands, and no evidence suggests that the AI agent autonomously escalated its privileges.
Is this take reasonable or am I really missing something big?
- ilaksh 2y agoThat's correct. The whole thing is being promoted in a deliberately misleading way by multiple groups to get clicks.
- dazzaji 2y agoThanks for clarifying, and I’m sorry to hear this is happening. LLM agents have a lot of promise, and it’s frustrating to see baseless fear being stirred up. There’s already enough uncertainty around what’s legitimately needed to get the tech and usage right.