Security

Forage provides isolation for AI agents, but it’s important to understand the threat model and limitations.

Threat Model

Trusted

Host system administrator
Nix store contents (from nixpkgs/trusted sources)
Forage module configuration

Untrusted

AI agent behavior
Code being worked on in workspace
Packages installed by agents at runtime

Security Layers

Container Isolation

Sandboxes use systemd-nspawn containers:

Separate PID namespace
Separate network namespace
Separate mount namespace
Resource limits (cgroups)
Ephemeral root filesystem

Filesystem Isolation

Path	Access	Notes
`/`	Read-write	Ephemeral (tmpfs), lost on restart
`/nix/store`	Read-only	Shared from host
`/workspace`	Read-write	Bind-mounted from host
`/run/secrets`	Read-only	API keys and credentials

Agents can only persistently modify files in /workspace.

Network Isolation

Mode	Description
`full`	Unrestricted internet access
`restricted`	Allowlist of specific hosts
`none`	No network access

Even with network = "none", containers can communicate with the nix daemon socket.

Auth Obfuscation

API keys are:

Stored in files, not environment variables
Read at runtime by wrapper scripts
Set only for the agent process

This makes casual credential discovery harder, but doesn’t prevent a determined agent from reading /run/secrets/.

Mitigations

Threat	Mitigation
Agent exfiltrates API keys	API proxy (keeps secrets on host); obfuscation via wrappers (UX convenience, not a security boundary)
Agent accesses host filesystem	Container isolation, explicit bind mounts only
Agent makes unwanted network calls	Network isolation modes
Agent runs dangerous commands	Permission rules (`allow`/`deny`) via managed settings
Agent corrupts system state	Ephemeral root, easy reset
Agent fills disk	Ephemeral tmpfs has size limits
Agent escapes container	systemd-nspawn security features

Limitations

Auth Obfuscation Is Not Foolproof

A determined agent could:

Read files in /run/secrets/ directly
Inspect its own process memory
Intercept API calls

Wrappers provide obfuscation, not security. They stop casual discovery, not intentional exfiltration.

Container Escape Vulnerabilities

systemd-nspawn is not a security boundary like a VM. Kernel vulnerabilities could allow container escape. For high-security scenarios, consider:

Running sandboxes in VMs
Additional seccomp filtering
SELinux/AppArmor policies

In restricted mode, allowed host IPs are resolved at sandbox creation time and baked into nftables rules. If a host’s IPs change (e.g., CDN rotation), the rules become stale and connectivity may break until the sandbox is reconfigured with forage-ctl network.

Network Exfiltration

Even with network = "none", agents could potentially:

Encode data in DNS queries (if DNS is available)
Use timing side channels
Embed data in legitimate API calls

Workspace Access

Agents have full read-write access to /workspace. They could:

Modify or delete project files
Read sensitive files in the project
Create files that execute on the host

Best Practices

Secret Management

# Use proper secret management (sops-nix, agenix)
secrets = {
  anthropic = config.sops.secrets.anthropic-api-key.path;
};

# Don't hardcode secrets
# BAD: secrets = { anthropic = "/home/user/.secrets/key"; };

Template Design

# Minimize installed packages
extraPackages = with pkgs; [ ripgrep fd ];
# Don't include: curl, wget, netcat, etc. unless needed

# Use network isolation when possible
network = "none";  # For tasks that don't need network

# Use granular permissions instead of skipAll when possible
agents.claude.permissions = {
  allow = [ "Read" "Glob" "Grep" "Edit(src/**)" ];
  deny = [ "Bash(rm -rf *)" ];
};

Agent Permissions

Use the most restrictive permissions that still allow the agent to do its job:

Prefer granular allow/deny over skipAll
Use deny rules to block dangerous patterns even when allowing broad tool access
skipAll is convenient for trusted development workflows but grants full tool access

Workspace Hygiene

Don’t put sensitive files (SSH keys, credentials) in project directories
Use .gitignore / .jjignore to exclude sensitive patterns
Review agent-created files before committing

Regular Resets

# Reset sandbox periodically to clear accumulated state
forage-ctl reset myproject

Monitor Agent Activity

Review files modified by agents
Check git/jj history for unexpected changes
Monitor network traffic if concerned

Additional Security Features

API Proxy

The forage-ctl proxy command starts an HTTP proxy that:

Keeps secrets on the host, never in containers
Injects API keys into requests at runtime
Can log all API calls for audit
Enables rate limiting and request filtering

Future Security Enhancements

Syscall Filtering

Additional seccomp profiles to restrict:

Dangerous syscalls
Network operations
File operations outside allowed paths

Read-Only Workspace Mode

For review tasks where the agent shouldn’t modify files:

templates.review = {
  readOnlyWorkspace = true;
  # ...
};

This is implemented and enforces filesystem-level read-only mounting of /workspace.

Reporting Security Issues

If you discover a security vulnerability in Forage, please report it responsibly:

Do not open a public issue
Email security concerns to the maintainers
Allow time for a fix before public disclosure

See the project repository for contact information.

Firefly Forage