Claude Code's “Don't Ask Again” File Exposes Passwords and Keys in 1,122 Public Copies on GitHub

Summary

Apiiro reports that passwords and API keys typed into commands approved with "Yes, and don't ask again" in Claude Code are saved in plain text in .claude/settings.local.json. Its search of public GitHub found 1,122 copies holding at least one secret, though it did not test whether they still work. One notified company confirmed its key was live.

Mitigation

The researchers advise rotating first: change every password, token, and key the file has ever held, then clean up. Removing the file from a project does not undo the leak, because older versions remain in git history and forks.

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