points by bcvvvy 23 hours ago | 0 comments
I think the take home here is that there is no such thing as complete isolation in virtualization on modern and complex architectures.
[–] uberduper 16 hours ago
The take home is that any shared resource is a potential communication channel between two willing participants. In this case it was CPU cache, presumably because openai didn't bother with basic vm security practices.
There's so many possibilities that this type of thing will never be solved by invisible (to the agent) boundaries. The sandbox is just another layer in w/e problem you've given it to solve.
[–] ozgung 22 hours ago
Philosophical take home:
There is no such thing as isolation. We’re all connected. Even air gap conducts information in multiple ways, most famously used by humans evolved to use air vibrations to communicate. Photons and other subatomic particles already connects distant stars. We used those electrons and photons to create the modern telecommunications infrastructure. Just an additional layer of connectedness, but not the only one.
[–] williamdclt 21 hours ago
non-philosophical answer: systems are considered "isolated" if the information leaks aren't exploitable. This is a moving definition, it changes as new ways to exploit information are discovered.
[–] bcvvvy 22 hours ago
As someone who designed heavily compartmentalised and isolated systems, nope.
Run them in a data center in a faraday cage under a mountain.