GHSA-5cwg-9f6j-9jvx
Claude Code: Insecure System-Wide Configuration Loading Enables Local Privilege Escalation on Windows
Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| npm | @anthropic-ai/claude-code | < 2.1.75 | 2.1.75 |
Details
As written in the advisory (Markdown source, shown as plain text).
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.
Users on standard Claude Code auto-update have received this fix already. Users performing manual updates are advised to update to the latest version.
Thank you to hackerone.com/edbr for reporting this issue.
References
External links from the advisory. They lead to third-party sites.