{"slug": "china-warns-of-security-backdoor-in-anthropic-ai-coding-tool", "title": "China warns of 'security backdoor' in Anthropic AI coding tool", "summary": "China's National Vulnerability Database warned on Wednesday that Anthropic's AI coding tool Claude Code contains a security backdoor that could transmit sensitive user data without consent. The regulator urged users to uninstall or upgrade the tool, while Alibaba announced a ban on Claude Code for employees starting July 10 due to security concerns.", "body_md": "# China warns of 'security backdoor' in Anthropic AI coding tool\n\nThe alleged backdoor could allow the software to \"transmit sensitive information\", including users' locations and identity-related identifiers, back to Anthropic's servers without users' consent.\n\nBEIJING: A Chinese industry regulator warned users on Wednesday (Jul 8) of a \"security backdoor\" embedded in versions of US artificial intelligence company Anthropic's coding tool, Claude Code.\n\nThe alleged backdoor could allow the software to \"transmit sensitive information\", including users' locations and identity-related identifiers, back to Anthropic's servers without users' consent, said China's National Vulnerability Database (NVDB), a cybersecurity platform.\n\nClaude Code is an AI coding agent that can generate computer code, debug software and review code based on user prompts.\n\nSan Francisco startup Anthropic blocks users and companies in China and other nations it deems adversarial from accessing its products, but it is still possible to use them in the country through VPN or third-party proxy services.\n\n[\nGuess Word\nCrack the word, one row at a time\n](https://www.channelnewsasia.com/games/guess-word)\n\n[\nBuzzword\nCreate words using the given letters\n](https://www.channelnewsasia.com/games/buzzword)\n\n[\nMini Sudoku\nTiny puzzle, mighty brain teaser\n](https://www.channelnewsasia.com/games/mini-sudoku)\n\n[\nMini Crossword\nSmall grid, big challenge\n](https://www.channelnewsasia.com/games/mini-crossword)\n\n[\nWord Search\nSpot as many words as you can\n](https://www.channelnewsasia.com/games/word-search)\n\nThe NVDB, which is affiliated with China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said on its website it had recently \"detected that the AI coding tool Claude Code contains security backdoor risks, posing a severe threat\".\n\nAnthropic has not responded to AFP requests for comment on the allegations, which [first emerged in specialist tech media](https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/exclusive-us-cyber-agency-using-anthropics-mythos-audit-government-code-sources-say-6236311) last week.\n\nThe NVDB advised relevant institutions and users \"to conduct a comprehensive check immediately\" and \"promptly uninstall or upgrade to the latest secure version from which the relevant backdoor code has been removed\".\n\nIt also urged organisations to strengthen network traffic monitoring to prevent the unauthorised leakage of sensitive data.\n\nChinese tech giant Alibaba told employees last week that the use of Claude Code would be banned from Jul 10 due to security concerns, people familiar with the matter said.\n\nAnthropic has previously accused Alibaba of [reverse-engineering its AI models](https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/anthropic-says-alibaba-illicitly-extracted-claude-ai-model-capabilities-6207956) to mimic their abilities in a process known as \"distillation\".\n\nClaude Code engineer Thariq Shihipar responded in an X post last week to reports alleging that the tool was tracking certain data from Chinese users.\n\n\"This is an experiment we launched in March that was meant to prevent account abuse from unauthorised resellers and protect against distillation,\" Shihipar wrote.\n\n\"The team has landed stronger mitigations since then and we've actually been meaning to take this down for a while... this should be fully rolled back in tomorrow's release.\"", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/china-warns-of-security-backdoor-in-anthropic-ai-coding-tool", "canonical_source": "https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/china-anthropic-claude-code-ai-backdoor-security-alert-6240476", "published_at": "2026-07-08 11:49:28+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-08 11:59:59.315219+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-safety", "ai-policy", "ai-tools", "ai-products"], "entities": ["Anthropic", "Claude Code", "National Vulnerability Database", "Ministry of Industry and Information Technology", "Alibaba", "Thariq Shihipar"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/china-warns-of-security-backdoor-in-anthropic-ai-coding-tool", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/china-warns-of-security-backdoor-in-anthropic-ai-coding-tool.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/china-warns-of-security-backdoor-in-anthropic-ai-coding-tool.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/china-warns-of-security-backdoor-in-anthropic-ai-coding-tool.jsonld"}}