Security

Whisp includes multiple security layers to protect your data and prevent accidental damage.

Secret Redaction

Before sending any data to AI providers, whisp automatically redacts sensitive information. This happens on all context sent to the LLM, including recent commands, stderr output, and piped input.

Redacted Patterns

Patterns are compiled once and cached for performance. Redaction is applied before:

• Sending context to the AI provider
• Storing commands in history
• Logging error information

Destructive Command Detection

Whisp detects potentially dangerous commands and requires confirmation before adding them to your shell history.

Detected Patterns

File Deletion:

• rm -rf, rm -fr, rm -r
• rm -rf /, rm -rf /*, rm -rf ~, rm -rf *
• sudo rm -rf

Disk Operations:

• dd if= (disk duplication)
• mkfs, mkfs. (filesystem creation, e.g., mkfs.ext4, mkfs.xfs)
• sudo mkfs (filesystem creation with root privileges)
• wipefs (filesystem wiping)
• shred (secure file deletion)
• > /dev/sd* (raw disk writes)

System Modification:

• chmod -R 777 /, chmod 777 /
• mv /* , mv /

Dangerous Constructs:

• :(){:|:&};: (fork bomb)
• :(){ :|:& };: (fork bomb with spaces)
• > /dev/null 2>&1 & (suspicious background operation)

Sudo Prefixes:

• sudo rm -rf /
• sudo dd
• sudo mkfs

Confirmation Flow

When a destructive command is detected:

→ rm -rf ./build

⚠ Warning: This command may be destructive. Please review carefully.

Add to history? [y/N]

Only confirmed commands are added to shell history.

Disabling Confirmation

# Per-session
export WHISP_CONFIRM_DESTRUCTIVE=false

# Or per-command (not recommended)
WHISP_CONFIRM_DESTRUCTIVE=false , delete all temp files

File Permissions

Whisp uses restrictive file permissions to protect sensitive data.

Config File Warning

If your config file has unsafe permissions, whisp warns you:

Warning: ~/.config/whisp/config.toml has unsafe permissions (mode 644).
This file contains API keys. Consider: chmod 600 ~/.config/whisp/config.toml

Fix with:

chmod 600 ~/.config/whisp/config.toml

Socket Security

The daemon socket is created with secure permissions:

1. Umask: Socket created with umask 0077 (owner-only access)
2. Atomic creation: Permissions set during socket bind, not after
3. Cleanup: Stale sockets removed before binding

This prevents other users on the system from connecting to your whisp daemon.

Connection Limits

The daemon limits concurrent connections to prevent resource exhaustion:

Maximum concurrent connections: 100

When the limit is reached, new connections wait until a slot becomes available.

PID File Locking

The daemon uses exclusive file locking on the PID file:

• Prevents multiple daemon instances
• Uses flock for atomic locking
• Automatically cleaned up on shutdown

Audit Trail

All whisp interactions are logged to ~/.whisp/history.jsonl:

• Secrets redacted: API keys and passwords removed before logging
• Rotation: Automatically rotates at 10MB, keeps 3 files (~40MB total)
• Permissions: Log file created with 0600 permissions
• Atomic writes: Uses file locking for safe concurrent access

What's Logged

Each entry includes:

• Timestamp
• Session ID
• Command/query
• Working directory
• AI response
• Token usage
• Duration

Sensitive data is redacted before logging.

Shell Integration Security

Session Isolation

Each shell session gets a unique session ID (16-character alphanumeric):

echo $WHISP_SESSION_ID
# a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8

Session IDs are generated by the Rust binary using secure random generation.

Command Validation

Before executing the ,! (run last) command, whisp validates:

1. Temp file exists
2. File owner matches current user UID
3. File permissions are correct

This prevents privilege escalation attacks via temp file manipulation.

Network Security

API Communication

• All provider APIs use HTTPS
• No sensitive data logged in requests
• Errors don't expose API keys

Local Ollama

When using Ollama:

• Communication stays on localhost
• No external network requests
• API keys not required

Best Practices

1. Keep config secure: chmod 600 ~/.config/whisp/config.toml
2. Use environment variables: Set API keys via env vars instead of config file
3. Review destructive commands: Don't disable confirmation prompts
4. Monitor usage: Check whisp metrics for unexpected activity
5. Keep updated: Run whisp update --check periodically