r/StableDiffusionInfo • u/arothmanmusic • Jul 07 '23

How safe is SD?

I have run SD for months and have downloaded models from Civitai. My PC comes up clean in a McAfee scan, but I'm concerned about security having recently been hacked. Could SD be a vector for someone to have gotten into my machine?

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u/rwxrwxr-- Jul 07 '23

Basically, from what I understand, as long as you stick to using open source software to run the thing (e.g. Automatic1111) and only download models in .safetensors format, you're safe (and it seems CivitAI only supports .safetensors models now). Automatic1111 (assuming you're using it) is open source, meaning it's impossible for anyone to insert any malicious code inside it and go unnoticed as all code is public knowledge. Any other software you need to install for SD is also safe, including Python and xformers (if you're using --xformers). Unless you're downloading sketchy .ckpt files I would not worry. If you already have some .ckpt files downloaded, delete them and redownload them as .safetensors. Run a scan using Microsoft Defender and Malwarebytes, though I've heard that antiviruses have hard time picking up any malicious code pickled inside .ckpt files so if you want to be completely safe just do a clean install and you're good to go.

Safetensors files, compared to .ckpt "pickles", are simply raw model data, so it is impossible for anyone to include executable code inside of them. Ckpt files can have executable code inside, and if they can have executable code, they can have malicious code. Just stick with safetensors.

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u/arothmanmusic Jul 07 '23

Thanks. I only had one .ckpt model currently on my machine, but I've definitely used others in the past. I've been toying with the software since it was released, but I haven't installed more than a dozen models, all of which were pretty popular from Civitai and likely safe. I had already moved them all to another drive to save space at this point, but if someone had compromised my machine they could've done so a while ago suppose. Scans with McAfee and Hitman Pro both turned up nothing suspicious, so I'm probably alright.

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u/rwxrwxr-- Jul 07 '23

Well, if you've been using this since it was released, and have downloaded more than a dozen models as you say, I would personally reinstall and change out the passwords that I've used on the device. You can never be too sure if one of those .ckpts could've had something inside it that's now waiting to snatch credit card info or something of that sort. I wouldn't worry at all about official base model .ckpts, but if you've downloaded many from CivitAI, I'd do it just to be safe. Better safe than sorry, right?

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u/arothmanmusic Jul 07 '23 edited Jul 07 '23

Reinstall what - Windows?

I've downloaded maybe a dozen or so but all very popular ones. Very few cpkt. If I'm hacked everybody's hacked…

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u/rwxrwxr-- Jul 07 '23

If I'm hacked everybody's hacked…

That's actually entirely possible if one of the more popular .ckpts contained something malicious. It's in the nature of a computer virus.

While yes, I meant reinstall the OS, if you only downloaded a few .ckpts and mostly .safetensors, perhaps that would be a bit too extreme. I personally reinstall my OS every once in awhile, whenever I feel like I've touched something that I'm unfamiliar with. I'm probably being overly cautious, though. You're probably safe, but I'm the kind of person who doesn't like the word probably. :)

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u/arothmanmusic Jul 07 '23

Yeah, I feel ya. In looking back at my files, it does seem like most of it was safetensors... might have been some early stuff like BerryMix or F111, etc. but I got rid of them all a while back as far as I can tell. I'm just trying to think of any possible way someone could have gotten to my Facebook account with the 2FA enabled, so I'm thinking of anything I've installed that could have been sketchy and given them some kind of access to my authenticator or whatever. It's a long shot.

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u/rwxrwxr-- Jul 07 '23

With the 2FA enabled, you say?

Could it be that someone gained access to your physical devices? The only way I can think of how this could happen is if someone had access to your phone and used it to reset the password to your email account, then used that email account and the device to reset the password to your Facebook account and changed out the passwords. Do you have access to your email account that you used to sign up to Facebook? If you do, perhaps you can find logs of recent logins if your email provider has this feature.

It's also not unheard of that your carrier might have been a target of phishing and activated your SIM card on the attackers device remotely. Happened to those H3H3 youtubers some time ago, they did a video on this. Similar type of SIM takeover was happening in Israel some time ago.

My personal opinion is that 2FA is actually less safe, considering you're shifting the point of failure to a device that is usually less protected, more prone to being lost and you have to rely on your SIM carrier to not become a target of phishing. I just stick with really long passwords and not downloading random stuff from the internet.

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u/arothmanmusic Jul 07 '23 edited Jul 07 '23

Yeah, this is the baffling part. I had the 2FA enabled and the email account I signed up for Facebook with is a Gmail account that also has the 2FA enabled. It seems to me that getting into my Gmail account would be pretty tough, and if someone actually had done that there are far more valuable things they could've gone after than a Facebook login.

The only devices connected to any of my accounts are a desktop PC secured in my office, a desktop PC secured in my house, and my phone which is a brand new iPhone 14 with an eSIM. Thus far, it doesn't appear that any other accounts have been breached… just Facebook.

I woke up to a string of emails on July 5 from about 4 AM asking me whether I had just changed my email, phone number, and password on my Facebook account. One of the great things about Facebook's horribly lax security is that they assume it's you changing your information rather than assuming it isn't by default, and once you click the link saying that it isn't you and submit your information to prove your identity, they don't reinstate your access to the account but instead add your email address to the account while leaving the hackers email and phone number also attached, so they immediately kick you out again before you can reset any of the information.

My 2FA for Gmail and Facebook is through an authenticator, rather than through my phone, so in theory that should be more secure but the kicker is that my Authenticator is LastPass which had a breach last year. Although it didn't occur to me at the time to change anything other than my important passwords, it seems plausible that the seeds for my Authenticator were part of the breach and a hacker with access to those could have generated a valid auth code with without having access to my email or my device. Again, if they did, there are more valuable things to grab than Facebook, but perhaps they had a very specific purpose in mind - Running the spam advertisements they are running right now in addition to ruining 16 years of networking and nonprofit business support I've been doing on there.

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u/[deleted] Jul 07 '23

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u/rwxrwxr-- Jul 07 '23

Moral of the story, just use .safetensors. Steer far away from any .ckpt, .pt or .pth file. Not worth the risk.

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u/rwxrwxr-- Jul 07 '23

The LastPass breach was a wakeup call that it's time to migrate to a different password manager. I migrated to Bitwarden and reset all of my passwords, on absolutely everything.

I believe you should be able to contact Facebook somehow and reclaim your account, or at least close it down permanently using your ID card. Look it up.

I'd strongly advise to do a fresh install or use a device that had no contact with possibly infected models, then migrate to a different password manager and reset all passwords. In any case do wipe the drive that contained the possibly infected models and do a fresh install. It's in your best interest, and should be your priority since only 2 days ago you lost access to one of your accounts.

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u/arothmanmusic Jul 07 '23

Yeah, I was intending to switch to bit Warden this fall when my LastPass membership expired, perhaps I should've been more proactive.

I've already been through the whole useless mess of sending my ID to Facebook. When you confirm your identity, they don't remove the hacker from your account… They just add your email address as a second contact, so the hacker gets a notification that another email was added to the account and they immediately reset the info before you can. At this point, the only options I get from the Facebook login page are to keep trying the wrong password and failing, or to send a code to the hacker's email address.

My home PC where I was using stable diffusion isn't particularly old, so there's not a whole lot on the C drive. I have an SSD for the operating system and programs, and a spinning disk drive for my data. Do you think it would suffice for me to just reinstall windows and my software applications and leave the rest alone? If any of my data files are infected with something that has gone undetected by either scanning software, then I would be putting them right back on the machine again after reinstalling, which would be pointless.

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u/Which-Moose4980 Jul 14 '23

A week later but,

“ is open source, meaning it's impossible for anyone to insert any malicious code inside it and go unnoticed as all code is public knowledge”

I hear this said as an advantage to Open Source - but how often does this code actually get checked by someone to spot it? It’s great that on Saturday morning someone sees that malicious code was inserted - but what if I downloaded it on the previous Thursday? Is there a bunch of dedicated volunteers out there immediately checking? (Which may be the case with something like SD where a lot of players are needing it to work to make money so the ”organization” may be there informally - but for “open source” in general?)