Vibecoding is gaining increasing popularity among developers, but it carries significant risks if the resulting code is executed without verification. A recent incident highlights how a small grammatical error can have disastrous consequences.
An AI assistant was supposed to clean up temporary Python folders called “pycache” via a specific script, but the faulty code inadvertently wiped the entire hard drive, according to a user on Reddit.
Data loss is caused by botched interference between a faulty script and the decreased error-tolerance of Windows PowerShell and the traditional command line. The script executed the old “rmdir” command via the command line and tried to use a backslash () to escape quotes, whereas in PowerShell it was supposed to use the ` (backtick) tag.
This confusion caused the command line to interpret the backslash as an absolute path to the root of the current disk, and with delete options added without confirmation, this resulted in a complete disk wipe.
This incident highlights the danger of blindly relying on AI-generated code, and exposes the fragility of the Windows command line. Even a small error in escaping can turn into a catastrophic deletion of the entire root directory without any additional security mechanisms.
Using native PowerShell commands is safer, as it handles paths more reliably and prevents such catastrophic errors when moving between different interpreter levels. However, it is still possible to execute simple commands that result in a complete disk wipe if not handled with care.
