OpenAI's LLM, ChatGPT read 2 of my API keys for NPM and Google AI and it didn't tell me that.
I gave it an MCP server that connects like this: LLM => OpenAI Tunnel => My local MCP server => Access to my Termux terminal 🗿
Incident 1 (Medium)
I told it to fix something, then soon in my logs I saw it read ~/.bashrc. And I know that I have my Google AI API Key. After it finished, it did not tell me that it read it. I rotated my API key after. I asked ChatGPT if it saw it after it finished and it said yes.
Incident 2 (Dangerous)
I then told it to fix another thing, then my logs also showed that it ran a command and viewed ~/.npmrc. My API Key was in there. And after it finished, it did NOT tell me it saw it. After I asked, it said it didn't see it. But I know it did unless OpenAI's safety checks burst through the door and slapped the plate of API keys out of ChatGPT's hands 💀💀💀
I still rotated the key tho.
Now I am not tryna say to stop using ChatGPT, I am just talking about the risks. Because an exposed NPM API Key can make someone:
- Publish suspicious packages on my account
- Make me get banned
- Add malware to existing packages
- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
What people should do is put their API keys into a .env when giving an AI access to your device and MAKE SURE to tell it not to read .env files. Or add restrictive permissions.
( Note: This same NPM incident happened with Replit Agent too, when in my Replit environment, it read ~/.npmrc )
Now like what are AIs expecting ~/.npmrc to contain? 💀
