{"id":8012,"date":"2026-10-02T12:54:41","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T12:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=8012"},"modified":"2026-10-02T12:54:41","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T12:54:41","slug":"a-flaw-in-chatgpts-mac-app-could-have-let-hackers-grab-sensitive-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=8012","title":{"rendered":"A Flaw in ChatGPT\u2019s Mac App Could Have Let Hackers Grab Sensitive Data"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><span class=\"lead-in-text-callout\">Hardly a day<\/span> goes by lately without news of AI agents autonomously <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/openai-sued-over-the-hugging-face-hack\/\" class=\"text link\">hacking<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/openai-agent-hacked-australias-health-service-their-government-found-out-months-later\/\" class=\"text link\">websites<\/a> or AI tools being used by cybercriminals and <a data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/openai.com\/index\/disrupting-malicious-uses-of-ai-romance-scam\/\" class=\"external-link text link\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/openai.com\/index\/disrupting-malicious-uses-of-ai-romance-scam\/&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/openai.com\/index\/disrupting-malicious-uses-of-ai-romance-scam\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">scammers<\/a>. But a recently patched vulnerability in the macOS version of OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT underscores the potential value to attackers of compromising AI software itself as these apps proliferate more and more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The bug could have been exploited to essentially take over ChatGPT on a victim\u2019s computer, giving an attacker access to all the chat logs and other data stored by the app, as well as interconnections like browser sessions. Discovered by researchers at the Objective-See Foundation, the vulnerability illustrates the deep system access and trust that AI platforms are afforded in order to work\u2014and the target that this puts on their backs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">\u201cAgents need a lot of access to do their job,\u201d says Objective-See Foundation software analyst and longtime macOS researcher Patrick Wardle. \u201cThey are like the building manager who has access to the keys to all the rooms. So if they can be corrupted or subverted, that\u2019s super problematic. It can mean that unprivileged code could then potentially have access to all the things.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">OpenAI publicly <a data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/learn.chatgpt.com\/docs\/changelog#codex-2026-09-25-app\" class=\"external-link text link\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/learn.chatgpt.com\/docs\/changelog#codex-2026-09-25-app&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/learn.chatgpt.com\/docs\/changelog#codex-2026-09-25-app\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">acknowledged<\/a> the security flaw and fix in its system change log on September 25. \u201cWe continue to evolve our security practices, but recognize a need to move faster,\u201d OpenAI spokesperson Shane Bauer told WIRED in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The ChatGPT macOS app includes multiple components that communicate with each other securely by checking for digital signatures. The idea is to confirm with these validity checks that both processes are OpenAI components and not outside, potentially malicious software making a request. And the system design goes so far as to require these signature checks at three layers of remove from the request, to ensure that malicious software isn\u2019t somehow directing an OpenAI component to be a proxy and make a seemingly trusted request.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Objective-See Foundation researchers found, though, that there is a trusted component, a script interpreter, that would accept an untrusted script (or list of commands to run) and could then be manipulated to deliver this script into the main ChatGPT process. \u201cThey also check the parent and grandparent of that process, but the malicious script just spawns the script interpreter three times and then makes the request so it will satisfy the requirements,\u201d Wardle says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The vulnerability was \u201cinsanely trivial\u201d to exploit, he adds, and his proof of concept only required about a dozen lines of code. In addition to accessing ChatGPT chat logs, the vulnerability could also be used to get ChatGPT to run commands for the attacker, such as accessing a browser or other sensitive applications, with the requests appearing as legitimate instructions issued by the OpenAI software.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/a-flaw-in-chatgpts-mac-app-could-have-let-hackers-grab-sensitive-data\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hardly a day goes by lately without news of AI agents autonomously hacking websites or AI tools being used by cybercriminals and scammers. But a recently patched vulnerability in the macOS version of OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT underscores the potential value to attackers of compromising AI software itself as these apps proliferate more and more. The bug [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[86,83,600,428,643,78,249],"class_list":["post-8012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gadgets","tag-apps","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-chatgpt","tag-hacks","tag-macos","tag-openai","tag-security"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A Flaw in ChatGPT\u2019s Mac App Could Have Let Hackers Grab Sensitive Data - Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"While the focus has been on AI agents\u2019 hacking capabilities, a recently patched vulnerability in a ChatGPT app shows that AI software is itself an inviting\u2014and vulnerable\u2014target.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=8012\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Flaw in ChatGPT\u2019s Mac App Could Have Let Hackers Grab Sensitive Data - 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