Kernel-Level Checks Reveal AI Agent Sandbox Was Off by Default
A developer running NVIDIA's NOOA AI agent framework discovered that its OS-level sandbox was not active during any of their previous agent runs, because the feature defaults to an in-process execution mode rather than an isolated sandbox. The framework's documentation openly states that its static checks and deny-lists are guardrails, not a true containment boundary, with the real security relying on OS-level isolation via seccomp and Landlock. By querying the Linux kernel directly through /proc filesystem entries, the developer confirmed that seccomp filters were only present on worker processes once the sandbox was explicitly enabled in configuration. Further investigation showed that resource caps were disabled by default and Landlock restrictions cannot be read back from the kernel, meaning only behavioral testing can verify that particular guard. NVIDIA's own test suite includes 46 integration tests that verify sandbox containment in under 23 seconds, offering a practical method to confirm these protections are actually running.
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