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Comment by miohtama

18 hours ago

“A tool with a purpose of editing files on a remote system can edit files on a remote system.”

it's worse than that, last i looked into this - there's functionality in the protocol that allows the remote system to modify files and execute code on the local/frontend system. it really is bananas.

Edit: there's a security note (still) on the remote ssh extension page:

Security Note Using Remote-SSH opens a connection between your local machine and the remote. Only use Remote-SSH to connect to secure remote machines that you trust and that are owned by a party whom you trust. A compromised remote could use the VS Code Remote connection to execute code on your local machine.

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-vscod...

  • Reminds me of the old Jenkins protocol which warned about "slaves" getting access to execute code on the "master": who's the master now? ;)

    • when slaves became workers and joined the union, the unions became "social partners". this is how one closes the laptop at 4 and doesn't have to suffer vibe-decrees mandating RTO

      seize the control plane.

  • This.

    The ability to remotely run arbitrary code on a machine that intentionally gives SSH shell and write+execute access to the filesystem is not a vulnerability just because it's a productivity aid to users who want to leverage this access to do bad things on the remote machine.

    A remote access protocol that gives a potentially untrustworthy remote system the ability to execute arbitrary code on the local machine is a serious problem in any scenario where the remote connection is presumed to be a one-way trust boundary.

    Which of course includes any scenario where I myself deliberately run untrustworthy code on the remote, no matter how much I trust the remote itself and its owners.