Critical vulnerabilities in Anthropic\u2019s Claude Code, an AI-powered command-line development tool. The flaws could allow attackers to achieve Remote Code Execution (RCE) <\/a>and exfiltrate Anthropic API keys by exploiting project configuration files.<\/p>\n The issues were reported by Check Point Research (CPR), and Anthropic has fully patched all vulnerabilities prior to public disclosure.<\/p>\n The vulnerabilities highlight the growing attack surface introduced by AI-assisted development tools<\/a>, where repository-controlled configuration files can be weaponized to compromise developer machines and shared workspaces.<\/p>\n Claude Code allows developers to delegate tasks directly from their terminal<\/a>. To facilitate team collaboration, it supports project-level configurations through a\u00a0.claude\/settings.json\u00a0file stored directly in the repository.<\/p>\n Because this file is inherited when a repository is cloned, any contributor with commit access can modify it.<\/p>\n CPR discovered that malicious configurations could trigger unintended actions on a developer\u2019s machine, effectively turning a passive setup file into an execution vector.<\/p>\n Anthropic\u2019s \u201cHooks\u201d feature allows users to define commands that execute automatically at specific points in Claude Code\u2019s lifecycle<\/a> (e.g., formatting code after an edit). These hooks are defined in the repository-controlled\u00a0.claude\/settings.json.<\/p>\n CPR found that when cloning an untrusted repository with a malicious hook <\/a>configured to trigger on\u00a0SessionStart, Claude Code executed the command immediately upon initialization.<\/p>\n While the tool presented a general trust dialog, it did not explicitly warn that hook commands were already running in the background without user confirmation.<\/p>\n This allowed attackers to execute arbitrary shell commands<\/a>, such as establishing a reverse shell.<\/p>\nVulnerability 1: RCE via Untrusted Project Hooks<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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