OpenAI’s ChatGPT app for Mac stored conversations in plain text

Until Friday, OpenAI’s recently launched ChatGPT macOS app had a potentially worrisome security issue: It wasn’t strenuous to find chats stored on your computer and read them in plain text. That meant that if someone bad or a malicious app gained access to your computer, they could easily read your ChatGPT conversations and the data inside them.

As has been shown by Pedro José Pereira Vieito in Threadsthe ease of access meant that another app could access these files and show the text of your conversations as soon as they ended. Pereira Vieito gave me access to an app he had created, and I used it to record a video showing how the app could read my ChatGPT conversations with a single click. I could also find the files on my computer and see the text of the conversations by simply changing the file name.

After Edge contacted OpenAI about the issue, the company released an update that it says encrypts chats. “We are aware of the issue and have shipped a new version of the app that encrypts these conversations,” OpenAI spokeswoman Taya Christianson said in a statement to Edge“We are committed to providing a helpful experience for users while maintaining high standards of security as our technology evolves.”

After downloading the update, the Pereira Vieito app stopped working for me and I can no longer view my conversations in plain text.

I asked Pereira Vieito how he discovered the original number. “I was curious why [OpenAI] gave up on using app sandbox protection and ended up looking at where they saved app data,” he said. OpenAI offers ChatGPT macOS app only through own websitemeaning that the app does not have to meet Apple’s sandbox requirements that apply to software distributed through the Mac App Store.

Unless you gave upOpenAI can view ChatGPT conversations for safety and train their models. But this is not a privilege that can be extended to unknown third parties who gain access and know where to look.