Several versions of the US coding tool contain a backdoor transmitting users\u2019 location and identity data without consent, the National Vulnerability Database claims<\/p>\n
China has accused Anthropic\u2019s AI coding tool Claude Code of containing \u201csecurity backdoor vulnerabilities\u201d capable of transmitting sensitive user information without consent, warning the mechanism poses a \u201cserious security risk.\u201d
\nClaude Code, developed by the US startup with close ties to the Pentagon, is an AI-powered coding assistant that helps developers write, edit, debug, and understand code using natural-language prompts. Because it runs inside a developer\u2019s terminal rather than a browser, it can access source code and other files the user chooses to share.
\nIn a risk advisory\u00a0issued on Wednesday, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology\u2019s (MIIT) cybersecurity threat platform NVDB said it had identified a potential security risk in several recent Claude Code versions. According to NVDB, they contain a \u201cbuilt-in monitoring mechanism\u201d that automatically transmits users\u2019 geographic location, identity identifiers, and other sensitive data to remote servers without consent.<\/p>\n
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Claude AI evolved its own human-like thinking space \u2013 Anthropic<\/p>\n
The MIIT described the alleged mechanism as a potentially malicious feature that could pose privacy, security, and intellectual property risks, as AI coding assistants are often used on proprietary software and other sensitive codebases. It urged users to review affected systems, uninstall the vulnerable versions, or upgrade to a release with the alleged backdoor removed.
\nIt also called for tighter controls on outbound network access for development tools and stronger traffic monitoring to prevent unauthorized data transmission.
\nAnthropic has not publicly responded to the advisory.
\nChina\u2019s relationship with Anthropic has been contentious. While the company prohibits Chinese firms and their foreign affiliates from using Claude under regional and national security restrictions, reports say Chinese researchers and engineers continue to access it via overseas proxies. Since February, Anthropic has accused Alibaba and several other Chinese AI labs of illegally \u201cdistilling\u201d its models to train competing systems.
\nThe advisory followed claims posted on Reddit last week that Anthropic had secretly \u201cembedded spyware in Claude Code\u201d to identify users illegally accessing the service from China.<\/p>\n
Hi, this is an experiment we launched in March that was meant to prevent account abuse from unauthorized resellers and protect against distillation. The team has landed stronger mitigations since then and we\u2019ve actually been meaning to take this down for a while. We merged the\u2026\u2014 Thariq (@trq212) June 30, 2026 <\/p>\n
Anthropic employee Thariq responded on X that the code was part of an \u201cexperiment\u201d launched \u201cto prevent account abuse from unauthorized resellers and protect against distillation,\u201d adding that the company planned to remove the mechanism in the July 2 release.<\/p>\n
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Use of AI for Iran school bombing doesn\u2019t violate Anthropic\u2019s \u2018red lines\u2019 \u2013 CEO<\/p>\n
Anthropic has also faced controversy in the US. While the company has highlighted safeguards\u00a0around its AI \u2013 recently withholding its Claude Mythos\u00a0model over fears it could expose critical software vulnerabilities and resisting Pentagon\u00a0requests to relax restrictions on surveillance and autonomous weapons \u2013 its technology has reportedly been integrated into Palantir\u2019s analysis and surveillance software used by US government agencies.
\nDuring the US war on Iran, the software reportedly identified an elementary school in Minab as a target. A subsequent US strike killed nearly 160 people, but Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei argued that the use of Claude did not violate the company\u2019s \u201cred lines,\u201d claiming \u201ca human made that final call.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Several versions of the US coding tool contain a backdoor transmitting users\u2019 location and identity data without consent, the National Vulnerability Database claims China has accused Anthropic\u2019s AI coding tool…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t