Raw 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:XSummary
CVE-2026-35603 is a medium-severity Untrusted Search Path (CWE-426) vulnerability in Anthropic Claude Code. Its CVSS base score is 5.4 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Path Interception (T1034); ranked at the 1th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
This vulnerability is AI-related — categorised as Enterprise AI Assistants; in the Supply Chain and Deployment risk domain.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to CM-6 (Configuration Settings) and CM-7 (Least Functionality) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
CVE-2026-35603 affects Claude Code, an agentic coding tool, in versions prior to 2.1.75 on Windows. The vulnerability stems from the application loading a system-wide default configuration file from the path C:\ProgramData\ClaudeCode\managed-settings.json without validating directory ownership or access permissions. The ProgramData directory is writable by non-administrative users by default, and the ClaudeCode subdirectory is neither pre-created nor access-restricted, enabling unauthorized file placement (CWE-426: Untrusted Search Path). The issue was published on 2026-04-17.
A low-privileged local user can exploit this on a shared multi-user Windows system by creating the C:\ProgramData\ClaudeCode directory and placing a malicious managed-settings.json file. When any other user, such as an administrator, launches Claude Code afterward, the malicious configuration is automatically loaded. This requires user interaction from the victim (UI:R) but grants the attacker high-impact confidentiality, integrity, and availability compromise (CVSS 7.3: AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).
The vulnerability has been fixed in Claude Code version 2.1.75. Additional mitigation details are available in the security advisory at https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/security/advisories/GHSA-5cwg-9f6j-9jvx.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-23520
Vulnerability Data
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…
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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.
- CWE(s)
AI Security AnalysisAI
- AI Category
- Enterprise AI Assistants
- Risk Domain
- Supply Chain and Deployment
- OWASP Top 10 for LLMs 2025
- None mapped
- Classification Reason
- Matched keywords: claude
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Secure baseline settings can enforce absolute, organization-controlled paths for critical resources.
Least-functionality configuration can prohibit unapproved directories or executables from being reachable via search paths.
Engineering principles such as trusted paths, complete mediation, and least privilege directly require hard-coded or validated search paths instead of external ones.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Preventing execution of unauthorized code directly blocks the malicious binaries that an untrusted search path would load.
Secure development practices include avoiding or sanitizing externally influenced search paths in application code.
Hardened configuration baselines can enforce safe search paths and restrict environment variables that enable the weakness.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Security testing can discover search-path issues but does not itself prevent them in production code.
Restricting software installation reduces the chance that untrusted binaries or libraries are placed in search paths.
Secure architecture principles include hard-coded or validated search paths and avoiding reliance on untrusted directories.
Secure coding standards require absolute paths or integrity-checked search paths, directly mitigating CWE-426.
Change-management processes can enforce review of path-handling changes, indirectly lowering risk.