Comment by feearent
2 days ago
Not really related to the topic, but AI-popular sentences and language structure stand out to people right away these days right? I noticed some.
"If you cannot update yet, at least disable password logins: set PasswordAuthentication no in your sshd configuration and restart sshd. Either one closes the hole." (only AI would characterize a critical SSH implementation vulnerability as a hole closing game)
An attacker who can reach your SSH port can log in without knowing any password. It takes one connection, works every time, and needs no retries. (It sounds like the writer is bragging about the exploit instead of describing it. AI does this)
The attacker needs the name of an account whose password field is * (an account with no password set, which is normal for key-only accounts), and needs the machine to have at least one other account with a $5$ or $6$ password hash. The attacker then sends a very long password (257 to 1024 bytes). One user with a password is enough: it makes every account without one reachable. (same as above made stronger with the 'statement: statement2' format)
"Users coming from a directory service through musl-nscd (nslcd, winbind, sssd), since they have no shadow entry." (a human would be more clear about what a shadow entry is and give more context, I think)
Hmm the rest of the article (the remaining 70-80%) seems quite human.
Anyway, not sure why I spent 10+ minutes on this. It just jumps at me right away.
Agreed, I think all the tells you identified are correct. It is really off-putting to me still.
An aside but one nice thing I realize about not using LLMs is, I guess, I am not tortured by this kind of thing, because presumably I am not seeing it all the time. I can't even imagine quite being in the mode of reading this kind of text so closely like this, really. Its a security advisory, I don't really have my critical prose-reviewer hat on.
As a grad student I read and graded a lot of student philosophy papers (well before LLMs), and I just remember the exhaustion of it. It made me appreciate how much I could otherwise just read something, get information or enjoyment out of it, and not focus on each sentence construction.
Just to say, I do believe you, I get that if you have to put up with it so much in general, it must prime you to find it everywhere. You have to read so much more now, I'm sure, so you're trained to be in that mode. It makes sense! I am just sorry its like this for you and most everyone else now. It sounds exhausting.
Thank you for your comment, it's very refreshing (and comforting for me actually). Have a good day.