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pcl commented on My Lethal Trifecta talk at the Bay Area AI Security Meetup   simonwillison.net/2025/Au... · Posted by u/vismit2000
simonw · 18 days ago
I've been thinking a lot about this recently. I've started running Claude Code and GitHub Copilot Agent and Codex-CLI in YOLO mode (no approvals needed) a bit recently because wow it's so much more productive, but I'm very aware that doing so opens me up to very real prompt injection risks.

So I've been trying to figure out the best shape for running that. I think it comes down to running in a fresh container with source code that I don't mind being stolen (easy for me, most of my stuff is open source) and being very careful about exposing secrets to it.

I'm comfortable sharing a secret with a spending limit: an OpenAI token that can only spend up to $25 is something I'm willing risking to an insecured coding agent.

Likewise, for Fly.io experiments I created a dedicated scratchpad "Organization" with a spending limit - that way I can have Claude Code fire up Fly Machines to test out different configuration ideas without any risk of it spending money or damaging my production infrastructure.

The moment code theft genuinely matters things get a lot harder. OpenAI's hosted Codex product has a way to lock down internet access to just a specific list of domains to help avoid exfiltration which is sensible but somewhat risky (thanks to open proxy risks etc).

I'm taking the position that if we assume that malicious tokens can drive the coding agent to do anything, what's an environment we can run in where the damage is low enough that I don't mind the risk?

pcl · 18 days ago
> I've started running Claude Code and GitHub Copilot Agent and Codex-CLI in YOLO mode (no approvals needed) a bit recently because wow it's so much more productive, but I'm very aware that doing so opens me up to very real prompt injection risks.

In what way do you think the risk is greater in no-approvals mode vs. when approvals are required? In other words, why do you believe that Claude Code can't bypass the approval logic?

I toggle between approvals and no-approvals based on the task that the agent is doing; sometimes I think it'll do a good job and let it run through for a while, and sometimes I think handholding will help. But I also assume that if an agent can do something malicious on-demand, then it can do the same thing on its own (and not even bother telling me) if it so desired.

pcl commented on Don't use Redis as a rate limiter   medium.com/ratelimitly/wh... · Posted by u/5pl1n73r
pcl · 19 days ago
At my previous employer, we used Redis for publicly-documented rate limits, but we applied them after our rate limiting infrastructure already evaluated defensive infrastructure-oriented rate limits.

We generally found that this worked out fine. Customer-facing limits were numbers measured in hours or days; infra limits were measured in seconds or minutes.

Certainly you wouldn’t want to rely on a central db for infra-oriented rate limiting, in any case.

pcl commented on Deno 2.4   deno.com/blog/v2.4... · Posted by u/hackandthink
oblio · 2 months ago
If the website CMS is hacked, they can just swap the installable binary to one's that's hacked, too.
pcl · 2 months ago
That’s why downloading and then executing is preferable — as the GP pointed out, you or your machine’s antivirus can have an opportunity to inspect the file prior to execution, whereas that is not an option when the bytes are streamed directly to the interpreter.
pcl commented on How to negotiate your salary package   complexsystemspodcast.com... · Posted by u/surprisetalk
ryandrake · 2 months ago
Basically correct. I guess my point is Patrick could have saved a lot of typing and simply wrote "Have one or more competing offers."
pcl · 2 months ago
I don’t get the impression that his brand is based on conciseness.
pcl commented on Airpass – Easily overcome WiFi time limits   airpass.tiagoalves.me/... · Posted by u/herbertl
glerk · 2 months ago
Alternatively, disconnect from the wifi, use this command and reconnect:

sudo ifconfig en0 ether 02:11:22:33:44:55

Just ran into this on icelandair.

pcl · 2 months ago
That’ll buy you one new turn of the crank; you’ll need to change numbers once every expiration period.
pcl commented on Show HN: Air Lab – A portable and open air quality measuring device   networkedartifacts.com/ai... · Posted by u/256dpi
poisonborz · 3 months ago
Very cool project, we need more competition in this space - other option is like Air Gradient One, also open source.

Famous HN "but": I find it baffling that by default we are shown this cutesy animation, that gets boring real fast, and actual measurement values in tiny font in the corner, which must be manually switched to for each sensor? Why not just show all sensor values in large font?

pcl · 3 months ago
I guess this is one of the cool things about an open stack, right?
pcl commented on Spaced repetition systems have gotten better   domenic.me/fsrs/... · Posted by u/domenicd
petesergeant · 3 months ago
Mine has all sorts of shit in it. Mac keyboard shortcuts. Nautical terms. Cyrillic characters. Credit card verification codes. Phone numbers. Airport codes. Ionic component names. Names of my friends’ kids. A surprising amount of Z Specification. Anything I think it would be useful to remember.
pcl · 3 months ago
How do you manage the data? Multiple decks or just one with everything? Do you directly use the app to add new phrases, or do you have some sort of automation / tooling on your phone or laptop?
pcl commented on Coinbase says hackers bribed staff to steal customer data, demanding $20M ransom   cnbc.com/2025/05/15/coinb... · Posted by u/gpi
hypeatei · 3 months ago
Whatever you think of Coinbase, this is a pretty good response IMO:

> and will not pay the $20 million ransom demand we received. Instead we are establishing a $20 million reward fund for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the criminals responsible

pcl · 3 months ago
I’d say the better thing for customers would be to pay the ransom demand and get the PII back. If they want to fund a reward scheme too, well great, but if it were my data, I’d care more about Coinbase limiting the breach of the data, not playing around with retaliatory rewards.
pcl commented on Designing Cities for Families   bloomberg.com/features/de... · Posted by u/toomuchtodo
gadders · 3 months ago
"How did the authorities respond? A series of local inquiries have exposed an official response that was unforgivably inadequate."

"What explains these failings? There are a range of explanations, from lack of understanding and incompetence to snobbery, misogyny and fear of inflaming racial tensions....

"There is evidence that many officials feared being accused of racism. In 2004, a Channel 4 documentary about Asian men grooming girls in Bradford was postponed over fears that it could lead to race riots; Jay found that councillors had fretted that discussion of the issue could harm "community cohesion". Telford's inquiry also identified a "nervousness about race"."

https://theweek.com/crime/the-grooming-gangs-scandal-explain...

pcl · 3 months ago
Sorry, I should have been more clear. Was looking for a citation for the claim that the Oslo police avoid investigations of serious crimes in an effort to underreport crimes from non-white immigrants.

u/pcl

KarmaCake day4295August 26, 2011
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