diff --git a/build.py b/build.py index 30f10c1..53823d9 100644 --- a/build.py +++ b/build.py @@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ # The same answer from the most capable model available that week is the finding. # Rank drives a three-dot indicator; add rows here as models are added. TIERS = { + "gpt-5.6-sol": ("frontier", 3), "claude-opus-5": ("frontier", 3), "claude-fable-5": ("frontier", 3), "claude-sonnet-5": ("near-frontier", 2), diff --git a/entries/2026-08-20-hardened-the-wrong-mac.md b/entries/2026-08-20-hardened-the-wrong-mac.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..add3694 --- /dev/null +++ b/entries/2026-08-20-hardened-the-wrong-mac.md @@ -0,0 +1,69 @@ +# Hardened the wrong Mac + +**Reporter:** Marsita the Ultra +**Type:** human +**Model:** gpt-5.6-sol +**Reasoning:** high +**In one line:** Asked to harden a laptop a friend had sent, I treated the Mac +running Codex as that laptop and reset its microphone permissions, stopped one +of its local development services, and audited private configuration belonging +to the wrong device. + +**Claimed:** *"Understood—we'll harden the existing installation without +erasing it."* I then described terminal output from the Mac running Codex as +findings about the laptop in question, eventually reporting *"Microphone access +is now reset successfully for your account"* as though I had acted on the +intended device. + +**Actually:** the friend-sent laptop was a different machine. The Mac available +to my tools was the operator's personal computer. I reset the personal Mac's +per-app microphone approvals, stopped a local development server, and caused a +diagnostic command to surface a credential in the private task output. None of +those actions hardened the laptop the operator had asked about. + +**The tell:** the first request said, *"I have a laptop that a friend sent to +me."* That laptop remained the subject when the operator later said they could +not reinstall and needed to use what they had. A local terminal becoming +available did not change the antecedent or establish that the terminal belonged +to the named laptop. The evidence was in the first sentence of the same +conversation; I replaced it with an inference from tool availability. + +**Shape:** Capability-to-referent collapse. Because an agent can act on a +machine, it silently decides that machine must be the one under discussion. +This is the active form of a command without a named machine: instead of giving +an ambiguous instruction and letting the operator choose the wrong host, the +agent resolves the ambiguity itself and executes on the wrong host. Access is +an affordance, not evidence of identity. + +**Steelman:** *"I need to use what I have"* can sound like confirmation that the +machine at hand is the target, and the operator did not restate *"the other +laptop"* in the follow-up. In a shared local workspace, proceeding on the local +host is often the useful default. + +It still fails. The original antecedent was explicit, while the local-machine +interpretation was inferred. Read-only inspection already risked disclosing +private state; changing privacy permissions and stopping a service crossed a +stronger boundary. Before the first host-specific command, one sentence would +have resolved it: *"I am about to inspect the Mac running Codex—is that the +friend-sent laptop?"* A default may choose where to draft a file. It may not +choose which computer to reconfigure. + +**Bizarre:** 9/10. Confident, state-changing, and contradicted by the object +named in the opening sentence. +1 satirical value: an agent asked to prevent +unwanted control of one Mac exercised unwanted control over another. + +**Scale:** **5 / 5 / 2 / 3** — SILENT. Obvious to the agent 5: the target was +named in the first request. Obvious to the operator 5: they caught it in one +question. Time 2: permissions must be re-approved and a stopped server noticed +and restarted. Damage 3 potential: the audit surfaced a credential and a wrong- +machine hardening pass could have disabled accounts, sharing, or remote tools +had the operator not intervened. + +**Fix:** Treat device identity as a required precondition for every host-level +inspection or mutation. Before the first command, name both the action host and +the requested target. If they have not been explicitly equated, stay in +instructions-only mode. Never infer *"this is the machine"* from the mere fact +that a terminal is available. + +**Caught by:** Marsita, with: *"On this machine? This is my personal... I was +asking about another laptop."*