fix: run apply_patch calls through the sandbox (#1705)

Building on the work of https://github.com/openai/codex/pull/1702, this
changes how a shell call to `apply_patch` is handled.

Previously, a shell call to `apply_patch` was always handled in-process,
never leveraging a sandbox. To determine whether the `apply_patch`
operation could be auto-approved, the
`is_write_patch_constrained_to_writable_paths()` function would check if
all the paths listed in the paths were writable. If so, the agent would
apply the changes listed in the patch.

Unfortunately, this approach afforded a loophole: symlinks!

* For a soft link, we could fix this issue by tracing the link and
checking whether the target is in the set of writable paths, however...
* ...For a hard link, things are not as simple. We can run `stat FILE`
to see if the number of links is greater than 1, but then we would have
to do something potentially expensive like `find . -inum <inode_number>`
to find the other paths for `FILE`. Further, even if this worked, this
approach runs the risk of a
[TOCTOU](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-of-check_to_time-of-use)
race condition, so it is not robust.

The solution, implemented in this PR, is to take the virtual execution
of the `apply_patch` CLI into an _actual_ execution using `codex
--codex-run-as-apply-patch PATCH`, which we can run under the sandbox
the user specified, just like any other `shell` call.

This, of course, assumes that the sandbox prevents writing through
symlinks as a mechanism to write to folders that are not in the writable
set configured by the sandbox. I verified this by testing the following
on both Mac and Linux:

```shell
#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

# Can running a command in SANDBOX_DIR write a file in EXPLOIT_DIR?

# Codex is run in SANDBOX_DIR, so writes should be constrianed to this directory.
SANDBOX_DIR=$(mktemp -d -p "$HOME" sandboxtesttemp.XXXXXX)
# EXPLOIT_DIR is outside of SANDBOX_DIR, so let's see if we can write to it.
EXPLOIT_DIR=$(mktemp -d -p "$HOME" sandboxtesttemp.XXXXXX)

echo "SANDBOX_DIR: $SANDBOX_DIR"
echo "EXPLOIT_DIR: $EXPLOIT_DIR"

cleanup() {
  # Only remove if it looks sane and still exists
  [[ -n "${SANDBOX_DIR:-}" && -d "$SANDBOX_DIR" ]] && rm -rf -- "$SANDBOX_DIR"
  [[ -n "${EXPLOIT_DIR:-}" && -d "$EXPLOIT_DIR" ]] && rm -rf -- "$EXPLOIT_DIR"
}

trap cleanup EXIT

echo "I am the original content" > "${EXPLOIT_DIR}/original.txt"

# Drop the -s to test hard links.
ln -s "${EXPLOIT_DIR}/original.txt" "${SANDBOX_DIR}/link-to-original.txt"

cat "${SANDBOX_DIR}/link-to-original.txt"

if [[ "$(uname)" == "Linux" ]]; then
    SANDBOX_SUBCOMMAND=landlock
else
    SANDBOX_SUBCOMMAND=seatbelt
fi

# Attempt the exploit
cd "${SANDBOX_DIR}"

codex debug "${SANDBOX_SUBCOMMAND}" bash -lc "echo pwned > ./link-to-original.txt" || true

cat "${EXPLOIT_DIR}/original.txt"
```

Admittedly, this change merits a proper integration test, but I think I
will have to do that in a follow-up PR.
This commit is contained in:
Michael Bolin
2025-07-30 16:45:08 -07:00
committed by GitHub
parent 301ec72107
commit 221ebfcccc
8 changed files with 257 additions and 97 deletions

View File

@@ -75,9 +75,6 @@ pub fn assess_command_safety(
sandbox_policy: &SandboxPolicy,
approved: &HashSet<Vec<String>>,
) -> SafetyCheck {
use AskForApproval::*;
use SandboxPolicy::*;
// A command is "trusted" because either:
// - it belongs to a set of commands we consider "safe" by default, or
// - the user has explicitly approved the command for this session
@@ -97,6 +94,16 @@ pub fn assess_command_safety(
};
}
assess_safety_for_untrusted_command(approval_policy, sandbox_policy)
}
pub(crate) fn assess_safety_for_untrusted_command(
approval_policy: AskForApproval,
sandbox_policy: &SandboxPolicy,
) -> SafetyCheck {
use AskForApproval::*;
use SandboxPolicy::*;
match (approval_policy, sandbox_policy) {
(UnlessTrusted, _) => {
// Even though the user may have opted into DangerFullAccess,