{"id":"CVE-2026-35603","aliases":["EUVD-2026-23520","GHSA-5cwg-9f6j-9jvx"],"status":"published","title":"Claude Code: Insecure System-Wide Configuration Loading Enables Local Privilege Escalation on Windows","description":"Claude Code is an agentic coding tool. In versions prior to 2.1.75 on Windows, Claude Code loaded the system-wide default configuration from C:\\ProgramData\\ClaudeCode\\managed-settings.json without validating directory ownership or access permissions. Because the ProgramData directory is writable by non-administrative users by default and the ClaudeCode subdirectory was not pre-created or access-restricted, a low-privileged local user could create this directory and place a malicious configuration file that would be automatically loaded for any user launching Claude Code on the same machine. Exploiting this would have required a shared multi-user Windows system and a victim user to launch Claude Code after the malicious configuration was placed. This issue has been fixed on version 2.1.75.","severity":{"version":"4.0","score":5.4,"vector":"CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:P/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N","level":"medium","assessor":"cna","from":"cve"},"epss":{"day":"2026-11-11","score":0.00108,"percentile":0.01179,"model":"v2026.06.15"},"facts":{"in_kev":false,"known_exploited":false,"public_exploit":true,"fix_available":true},"cwes":["CWE-426"],"published":"2026-04-17T20:38:49Z","modified":"2026-10-28T02:30:56Z","exploits":[{"source":"pocgithub","id":"jchable/miasma-toolkit","title":"jchable/miasma-toolkit","date":"2026-06-22","url":"https://github.com/jchable/miasma-toolkit"}],"fixes":[{"ecosystem":"npm","package":"@anthropic-ai/claude-code","fixed_in":["2.1.75"],"sources":["ghsa","osv"]}],"affected":[{"source":"ghsa","ecosystem":"npm","package":"@anthropic-ai/claude-code","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"2.1.75"}]}]},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"npm","package":"@anthropic-ai/claude-code","ranges":[{"type":"SEMVER","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"2.1.75"}]}]}],"products":[{"vendor":"anthropic","product":"claude_code"},{"vendor":"anthropics","product":"claude-code"}],"references":[{"url":"https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/security/advisories/GHSA-5cwg-9f6j-9jvx","tags":["x_refsource_CONFIRM","Vendor Advisory","advisory","web"]},{"url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-35603","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-5cwg-9f6j-9jvx"},{"url":"https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/35xxx/CVE-2026-35603.json","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code","tags":["package"]}],"sources":{"cve":[{"id":"CVE-2026-35603","title":"Claude Code: Insecure System-Wide Configuration Loading Enables Local Privilege Escalation on Windows","description":"Claude Code is an agentic coding tool. In versions prior to 2.1.75 on Windows, Claude Code loaded the system-wide default configuration from C:\\ProgramData\\ClaudeCode\\managed-settings.json without validating directory ownership or access permissions. Because the ProgramData directory is writable by non-administrative users by default and the ClaudeCode subdirectory was not pre-created or access-restricted, a low-privileged local user could create this directory and place a malicious configuration file that would be automatically loaded for any user launching Claude Code on the same machine. Exploiting this would have required a shared multi-user Windows system and a victim user to launch Claude Code after the malicious configuration was placed. This issue has been fixed on version 2.1.75.","status":"published","published":"2026-04-17T20:38:49.901Z","modified":"2026-04-20T14:57:47.669Z","cvss":[{"version":"4.0","score":5.4,"vector":"CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:P/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N","level":"medium","assessor":"cna"}],"cwes":["CWE-426"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:20:05.505362Z"}],"euvd":[{"id":"EUVD-2026-23520","description":"Claude Code is an agentic coding tool. In versions prior to 2.1.75 on Windows, Claude Code loaded the system-wide default configuration from C:\\ProgramData\\ClaudeCode\\managed-settings.json without validating directory ownership or access permissions. Because the ProgramData directory is writable by non-administrative users by default and the ClaudeCode subdirectory was not pre-created or access-restricted, a low-privileged local user could create this directory and place a malicious configuration file that would be automatically loaded for any user launching Claude Code on the same machine. Exploiting this would have required a shared multi-user Windows system and a victim user to launch Claude Code after the malicious configuration was placed. This issue has been fixed on version 2.1.75.","status":"published","published":"2026-04-17T20:38:49Z","modified":"2026-04-20T14:57:47Z","cvss":[{"version":"4.0","score":5.4,"vector":"CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:P/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N","level":"medium"}],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T19:24:22.446697Z"}],"ghsa":[{"id":"GHSA-5cwg-9f6j-9jvx","title":"Claude Code: Insecure System-Wide Configuration Loading Enables Local Privilege Escalation on Windows","description":"On Windows, Claude Code loaded system-wide default configuration from `C:\\ProgramData\\ClaudeCode\\managed-settings.json` without validating directory ownership or access permissions. Because the `ProgramData` directory is writable by non-administrative users by default and the `ClaudeCode` subdirectory was not pre-created or access-restricted, a low-privileged local user could create this directory and place a malicious configuration file that would be automatically loaded for any user launching Claude Code on the same machine. Exploiting this would have required a shared multi-user Windows system and a victim user to launch Claude Code after the malicious configuration was placed.\n\nUsers on standard Claude Code auto-update have received this fix already. Users performing manual updates are advised to update to the latest version.\n\nThank you to hackerone.com/edbr for reporting this issue.","status":"published","published":"2026-04-17T22:19:38Z","modified":"2026-04-27T16:21:56Z","cvss":[{"version":"4.0","score":5.4,"vector":"CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:P/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N","level":"medium"},{"version":"3.1","score":7.3,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","level":"high"}],"cwes":["CWE-426"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:39:58.897998Z"}],"nvd":[{"id":"CVE-2026-35603","description":"Claude Code is an agentic coding tool. In versions prior to 2.1.75 on Windows, Claude Code loaded the system-wide default configuration from C:\\ProgramData\\ClaudeCode\\managed-settings.json without validating directory ownership or access permissions. Because the ProgramData directory is writable by non-administrative users by default and the ClaudeCode subdirectory was not pre-created or access-restricted, a low-privileged local user could create this directory and place a malicious configuration file that would be automatically loaded for any user launching Claude Code on the same machine. Exploiting this would have required a shared multi-user Windows system and a victim user to launch Claude Code after the malicious configuration was placed. This issue has been fixed on version 2.1.75.","status":"published","published":"2026-04-17T21:16:33.507Z","modified":"2026-10-26T22:10:00.163Z","cvss":[{"version":"4.0","score":5.4,"vector":"CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:P/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X","level":"medium","assessor":"secondary"},{"version":"3.1","score":7.3,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","level":"high","assessor":"primary"}],"cwes":["CWE-426"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:12:15.120927Z"}],"osv":[{"id":"CVE-2026-35603","title":"Claude Code: Insecure System-Wide Configuration Loading Enables Local Privilege Escalation on Windows","description":"Claude Code is an agentic coding tool. In versions prior to 2.1.75 on Windows, Claude Code loaded the system-wide default configuration from C:\\ProgramData\\ClaudeCode\\managed-settings.json without validating directory ownership or access permissions. Because the ProgramData directory is writable by non-administrative users by default and the ClaudeCode subdirectory was not pre-created or access-restricted, a low-privileged local user could create this directory and place a malicious configuration file that would be automatically loaded for any user launching Claude Code on the same machine. Exploiting this would have required a shared multi-user Windows system and a victim user to launch Claude Code after the malicious configuration was placed. This issue has been fixed on version 2.1.75.","status":"published","published":"2026-04-17T20:38:49.901Z","modified":"2026-10-28T02:30:56.120467998Z","cvss":[{"version":"4.0","score":5.4,"vector":"CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:P/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N","level":"medium"}],"cwes":["CWE-426"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T15:45:02.673625Z"},{"id":"GHSA-5cwg-9f6j-9jvx","title":"Claude Code: Insecure System-Wide Configuration Loading Enables Local Privilege Escalation on Windows","description":"On Windows, Claude Code loaded system-wide default configuration from `C:\\ProgramData\\ClaudeCode\\managed-settings.json` without validating directory ownership or access permissions. Because the `ProgramData` directory is writable by non-administrative users by default and the `ClaudeCode` subdirectory was not pre-created or access-restricted, a low-privileged local user could create this directory and place a malicious configuration file that would be automatically loaded for any user launching Claude Code on the same machine. Exploiting this would have required a shared multi-user Windows system and a victim user to launch Claude Code after the malicious configuration was placed.\n\nUsers on standard Claude Code auto-update have received this fix already. Users performing manual updates are advised to update to the latest version.\n\nThank you to hackerone.com/edbr for reporting this issue.","status":"published","published":"2026-04-17T22:19:38Z","modified":"2026-05-05T16:04:01.752628Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":7.3,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","level":"high"},{"version":"4.0","score":5.4,"vector":"CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:P/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N","level":"medium"}],"cwes":["CWE-426"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T15:46:38.213481Z"}]}}