Claude Code Remembered Your Password So You Didn't Have To, and So Did GitHub
Yes, and don't ask again turned out to mean forever, in git history and forks.
What happened
Security firm Apiiro found 1,122 public GitHub copies of Claude Code's .claude/settings.local.json holding at least one secret. Claude Code saves approved commands word-for-word, including passwords and keys. One notified company confirmed its key was live, and the related bug reports were closed by an automated bot without a reply from Anthropic.
How many secrets were found overall?
Including secrets in older file versions, shared settings files, and saved agent chat logs, the researchers counted 2,539 secrets across 1,994 repositories.
What should affected teams do?
Search repositories and their git histories for the files, rotate every credential they contained before cleaning up, then stop tracking the local file and add it to the project’s .gitignore. Keep secrets out of commands by using variables from a secrets manager.
Did the exposed credentials still work?
The researchers did not test whether any of the exposed credentials still worked. One notified company confirmed that its key had been live.