Hacker News Reader

Nitpick, which probably doesn't matter too much in this context but is always good to remember: Docker containers are not security boundaries.

View on HN

Why not? They're definitely not perfect security boundaries, but neither are VMs. I think containers provide a reasonable security/usability tradeoff for a lot of use cases including agents. The primary concern is kernel vulnerabilities, but if you're keeping your kernel up-to-date it's still imo a good security layer. I definitely wouldn't intentionally run malware in it, but it requires an exploit in software with a lot of eyes on it to break out of.

It's certainly better than nothing. Hence "probably doesn't matter too much in this context" - but of course it always matters what your threat model is. Your own agents under your control with aligned models and not interacting with attacker data? Should be fine.

But too many people just automatically equate docker with strong secure isolation and... well, it can be, sometimes, depending a hundred other variables. Thus the reminder; to foster conversations like this.

counter-intuitively, the fact that docker on the mac requires a linux-based VM makes it safer than it otherwise would be. But your point stands in general, of course.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com