CVE-2026-35603
Claude Code: Insecure System-Wide Configuration Loading Enables Local Privilege Escalation on Windows
Impact
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.
Affected packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| npm | @anthropic-ai/claude-code | < 2.1.75 | 2.1.75 |
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | Claude Code | before 2.1.75 |