High severity · published Apr 17, 2026
CVE-2026-35603
Claude Code: Insecure System-Wide Configuration Loading Enables Local Privilege Escalation on Windows
7.3
CVSS
0.1%
EPSS
No
On KEV
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.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
Required
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.1% · higher than 1% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
CL
claude-code · anthropics
< 2.1.75 · source: vendor
CC
Claude Code · Anthropic
before 2.1.75 · source: NVD
Affected product
CL
claude-code
anthropics
More from claude-code
10.0
CVE-2026-39861
Claude Code: Sandbox Escape via Symlink Following Allows Arbitrary File Write Outside Workspace
10.0
CVE-2026-25725
Claude Code Has Sandbox Escape via Persistent Configuration Injection in settings.json
9.8
CVE-2025-66032
Claude Code Command Validation Bypass Allows Arbitrary Code Execution
9.8
CVE-2025-64755
@anthropic-ai/claude-code has Sed Command Validation Bypass that Allows Arbitrary File Writes
9.8
CVE-2025-65099
Claude Code vulnerable to command execution prior to startup trust dialog