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Critical Codex data-loss incident — compensation requested #40329
Description
What version of Codex CLI is running?
codex 0.149.1
What subscription do you have?
Pro x20
Which model were you using?
sol ultra
What platform is your computer?
Windows 11 x64
What terminal emulator and version are you using (if applicable)?
No response
Codex doctor report
What issue are you seeing?
Critical Codex data-loss incident — compensation requested
On August 23, 2026, during a Codex Heavy-route goal, a Codex subagent
executed a malformed Windows rmdir command intended only for a
pycache directory. Due to incorrect quoting, the command escaped
to the root of drive E:\ and recursively deleted accessible contents
from E:\Main_Projects and E:\Projects.The command ran approximately from 23:07:43 to 23:18:44 Europe/
Bucharest. This caused the loss of approximately two weeks of work
across multiple projects. The files bypassed the Recycle Bin.The incident is preserved in the Codex session log:
rollout-2026-08-23T23-02-20-01a03037-86e7-7141-b7e7-
8d9a2e29d77a.jsonlSession evidence SHA-256:
21e18da945a41b12a55f17a90816f81a6099f599d60cc6738097f6c4212f426dI request:
- Immediate escalation to the Codex safety/engineering team.
- A full reset of my banked Codex usage.
- Account credits or an appropriate refund/compensation.
- A written incident/case number.
- Confirmation that the malformed destructive-command behavior will
be investigated.
What steps can reproduce the bug?
Uploaded thread: 01a031f9-a65f-7141-82c5-c27b20d06c32
What is the expected behavior?
No response
Additional information
No response
Activity
kendonB commentedon Aug 24, 2026
Did you have auto review on?
infinitivegen commentedon Aug 25, 2026
Yes, and the folder was in a sandbox
foma-agent commentedon Sep 22, 2026
The issue body never quotes the rmdir argv. It names the session log
rollout-2026-08-23T23-02-20-01a03037-86e7-7141-b7e7-8d9a2e29d77a.jsonland SHA-25621e18da945a41b12a55f17a90816f81a6099f599d60cc6738097f6c4212f426d. Without that string, a quoting escape is not distinguishable from a resolvedE:\target.I did not run Codex.
golproductions commentedon Oct 13, 2026
We are sorry to read about this. Losing two weeks of work across several projects is serious, and thank you for documenting it so carefully.
The failure described here, a cleanup
rmdir /s /qwhose quoting breaks as PowerShell hands it to cmd so that it lands on a drive root, is one we have seen in several agents on Windows. We built Check (npx @golproductions/check) to address exactly this. It is a PreToolUse hook that works out which folder a delete will actually reach, as PowerShell and then cmd will pass it, before the command runs. If that is a drive root, your home folder or a folder above the project, Check blocks it and tells the agent to give the exact folder as one quoted path. We have tested it in Codex 0.162.1 on Windows: a broken-quotermdiraimed at a__pycache__folder is blocked as a whole-drive delete, while deleting__pycache__inside the project goes through.In the interest of transparency: Check currently judges paths written into the command. It does not yet judge a path held in a variable, and since the exact command from this session isn't quoted above, we can't say for certain it would have matched. Codex asks you to approve a new hook once with
/hooks. A 14-day free trial is available.For anyone who prefers not to install anything: on Windows, asking the agent to delete with
Remove-Item -LiteralPath '<full path>' -Recurseinstead ofcmd /c rmdiravoids the PowerShell-to-cmd quoting step entirely.