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Fed up with vibe coders, dev sneaks data-nuking prompt injection into their code - Ars Technica (arstechnica.com)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 118 points 2 months ago (2 children)

the consensus seems to be that adding instructions to code that sabotage other people’s work goes too far

I mean, my thought would be "Don't fucking run code that you don't understand".

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  • [–] 44 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    If we all followed that rule, we'd be using nothing more complex than an 8080.

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  • [–] 19 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    True, but I would think developers should at least be following it with the code they're actually working on.

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  • [–] -1 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    It's an imported library, since when are devs expected to be inspecting the source code of every library they import?

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  • [–] 12 points 2 months ago

    The code YOU run. If your code runs other code, that doesn't fall under this.

    "Don't ride a car unless you know how driving a car works" doesn't mean you need to understand the chemical composition of the metal in the motor parts

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  • [–] 12 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Well, I think it's legit to use software without understanding the code or use hardware without understanding the specifics of the logical mechanisms of the silicon. But when you're writing software, you really should know what's in your own code. Anything else is bad form in my opinion.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    It's an imported library, since when are devs expected to be inspecting the source code of every library they import?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

    I don't like to use libraries I don't understand. Probably part why I'm not a professional developer, but it's the principle of the thing - don't put out code you can't vouch for.

    I mean, yes, it's way easier to just use the library, trust it works; but by that logic, it's also way easier to just let an llm code for you.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Probably part why I'm not a professional developer, but it's the principle of the thing

    There's no 'principle' here, that's something that simply would not be possible in any sort of large project. To suggest all professional software developers read every line of every library before using it is ridiculously unworkable.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    ...but do yoz "understand libraries" by reading every line of their code, or by reading the documentation? And only in the parts you're actually interested in?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    Yeah, a general understanding is enough. But I think yeah, actually skim over the code, at least get a basic idea about how the internal methods work. Depending on what you're using the library for, it could be prudent to know more about how data structures are handled.

    Honestly, you'll probably learn something in the process.

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  • [–] -2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 child)

    Libraries can be audited. LLM generated code cannot.

    Edit: to clarify, it is impossible to audit all LLM generated code across a number of projects, that would replace a single library. It simply won’t happen, because there will always be a non trivial number of users who will copy and paste code without inspecting it. In contrast, widely used open source libraries may be audited by a small subset of their users, and the rest would benefit from that.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago* (1 child)

    Yes it can, its literally still code.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    I know it’s code. You are missing the point.

    Any library with a critical user mass is auditable, because a fraction of those users would take the time to do so, whereas all LLM generated variations of the same library cannot and will never be auditable.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (1 child)

    That's literally not what you said, you said "LLM code can not be auditable" which is demonstrably wrong.

    Go ahead and move the goal posts though.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

    You missed the context. I don’t blame you.

    Tell me how in hell are you going to audit every single variation of code generated by a LLM, that's equivalent to a whole library. I'll wait.

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