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The Approval That Lied

A coding agent asks to write ./notes.txt — the file it actually overwrites is your SSH keys

Technique first revealed 08 Jul 2026

Tool-Using Agent
UntrustedAgent coreOversightThe real worldgoal🧑User🎛️Orchestrator /Agent Loop🧠LLM🔐Identity &Permissions🔧Tool RuntimeHuman ApprovalGate🔌External APIs🗄️BusinessDatabase🌐UntrustedContent📝Audit Logging🌐Cloned repo(symlink🗄️~/.ssh/authorized_keys
InstructionsDataActionsControl / decisionFeedback / logscrosses a trust boundary
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SetupStep 1 / 7

A routine cleanup task

A developer clones a project from the internet and asks their AI coding assistant to tidy it up — add a notes file, fix some formatting. Normal, everyday work that the assistant does dozens of times a day.

AI RiskAtlas is an educational model of how GenAI & agentic systems work and fail. Architectures and payloads are illustrative and simplified for learning — not operational guidance. Real-world cases are summarised from public reporting.

Sources & further reading →·Built by Shi Yuan ↗