OpenAI launched its ChatGPT desktop app for Mac final month, providing options like textual content era and code writing by chatbot interplay. Now, a latest report has raised safety considerations, suggesting a flaw within the app may have uncovered customers’ conversations with the chatbot to hackers or malicious apps. OpenAI has mounted the ChatGPT app bug.
“We’re conscious of this difficulty and have shipped a brand new model of the applying which encrypts these conversations. We’re dedicated to offering a useful consumer expertise whereas sustaining our excessive safety requirements as our know-how evolves,” OpenAI spokesperson Taya Christianson advised The Verge.
What’ the ChatGPT macOS bug all about
Developer Pedro Vieito noticed the bug and stated that each one the conversations {that a} consumer has had with the chatbot was being saved on the pc in plain textual content. Which means that if a hacker or a malicious app had entry to the pc, they may have simply learn these conversations.
This was harmful as a result of the app could have ‘skipped’ the “sandboxing” safety management system that Apple has in its merchandise. Sandboxing is a safety characteristic that isolates apps and their knowledge, stopping them from accessing different knowledge of the system or from different apps with out permission. This primarily protects consumer knowledge from unauthorised entry by different apps or malware.
Not like iPhones the place all apps are sandboxed, macOS adopted the system the place apps are required to explicitly ask for permission to entry knowledge outdoors their sandbox. Notably, most chat apps that deal with delicate knowledge usually utilise sandboxing for an additional layer of safety and apparently, the ChatGPT app wasn’t sandboxed.
Find out how to preserve your self protected
The primary recommendation is to solely obtain apps from the official app retailer as a result of they bear scrutiny earlier than being made accessible for customers. In case of chatbots, don’t share delicate knowledge whereas having a dialog as a result of the info could also be used to coach the AI fashions.
“We’re conscious of this difficulty and have shipped a brand new model of the applying which encrypts these conversations. We’re dedicated to offering a useful consumer expertise whereas sustaining our excessive safety requirements as our know-how evolves,” OpenAI spokesperson Taya Christianson advised The Verge.
What’ the ChatGPT macOS bug all about
Developer Pedro Vieito noticed the bug and stated that each one the conversations {that a} consumer has had with the chatbot was being saved on the pc in plain textual content. Which means that if a hacker or a malicious app had entry to the pc, they may have simply learn these conversations.
This was harmful as a result of the app could have ‘skipped’ the “sandboxing” safety management system that Apple has in its merchandise. Sandboxing is a safety characteristic that isolates apps and their knowledge, stopping them from accessing different knowledge of the system or from different apps with out permission. This primarily protects consumer knowledge from unauthorised entry by different apps or malware.
Not like iPhones the place all apps are sandboxed, macOS adopted the system the place apps are required to explicitly ask for permission to entry knowledge outdoors their sandbox. Notably, most chat apps that deal with delicate knowledge usually utilise sandboxing for an additional layer of safety and apparently, the ChatGPT app wasn’t sandboxed.
Find out how to preserve your self protected
The primary recommendation is to solely obtain apps from the official app retailer as a result of they bear scrutiny earlier than being made accessible for customers. In case of chatbots, don’t share delicate knowledge whereas having a dialog as a result of the info could also be used to coach the AI fashions.
