# CVE-2026-35603

> Vulnerability · severity: **HIGH** (CVSS 7.3).

## 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.

## Key facts

- **CVE ID:** CVE-2026-35603
- **Published:** 2026-04-17
- **CVSS severity:** HIGH
- **CVSS base score:** 7.3
- **CWE codes:** CWE-426

## Affected products

- `anthropic:claude_code`
- `microsoft:windows`

## Primary sources

- NIST NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-35603

## Citation

> AI Analytics. CVE-2026-35603. Retrieved 2026-07-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/cve/CVE-2026-35603. Derived from NIST NVD. Licensed CC0.

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