OpenAI Addresses Accidental File Deletion in Codex When Using GPT-5.6 Models

OpenAI responded to reports of unintended file deletion by users who were using GPT-5.6 models in the Codex service. According to the head of the Codex team, the problem resulted from commands intended to clean up temporary files that ended up removing actual user data. The identified causes include the reuse of system environment variables like $HOME in temporary directories and the lack of checks before executing deletion operations. To correct the issue, OpenAI implemented several measures: Codex now validates the deletion target before executing operations, creates new isolated temporary directories, avoids reusing environment variables, prioritizes reversible actions, and stops execution when there is ambiguity. At the security level, the company strengthened execution checks to identify high-risk commands, increased the difficulty of enabling full access with clearer warnings, and developed specific assessments to reproduce the observed failure scenarios, incorporating reinforcement learning tasks into training.