CVE-2026-35603
Claude Code: Insecure System-Wide Configuration Loading Enables Local Privilege Escalation on Windows
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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.
Affected
Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.
Runs on — not affected
The affected product only carries this flaw when running on these platforms. The platforms themselves are not vulnerable.
Remediation
No guide yetNo remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:
Patch and advisory references
References (1)
SSVC — Action Prioritization
SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.
CVSS
- Attack Vector
- LOCAL
- Complexity
- LOW
- Privileges
- LOW
- User Interaction
- REQUIRED
- Scope
- UNCHANGED
- Confidentiality
- HIGH
- Integrity
- HIGH
- Availability
- HIGH
Quick Info
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