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.
Advisories
Source ID Title
Github GHSA Github GHSA GHSA-5cwg-9f6j-9jvx Claude Code: Insecure System-Wide Configuration Loading Enables Local Privilege Escalation on Windows
Fixes

Solution

No solution given by the vendor.


Workaround

No workaround given by the vendor.

History

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 23:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Anthropics
Anthropics claude Code
Vendors & Products Anthropics
Anthropics claude Code

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 20:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
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.
Title Claude Code: Insecure System-Wide Configuration Loading Enables Local Privilege Escalation on Windows
Weaknesses CWE-426
References
Metrics cvssV4_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'}


Projects

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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: GitHub_M

Published:

Updated: 2026-04-17T20:38:49.901Z

Reserved: 2026-04-03T21:25:12.162Z

Link: CVE-2026-35603

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-04-17T21:16:33.507

Modified: 2026-04-17T21:16:33.507

Link: CVE-2026-35603

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-04-17T23:00:12Z

Weaknesses