CVE-2026-44467 Claude Desktop: SSH Host Key Verification Bypass Allows Man-in-the-Middle Attack on Remote Sessions
Attackers can intercept SSH traffic to perform man-in-the-middle attacks on remote development sessions due to missing host key verification.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- A user has to click or open something
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2026-44467?
CVE-2026-44467 is a high-severity vulnerability in anthropics claude-code, published on 13 May 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Official description
The Claude Desktop app gives you Claude Code with a graphical interface built for running multiple sessions side by side. From 1.2581.0 to before 1.4304.0, Claude Desktop's SSH remote development feature verified only whether a hostname existed in ~/.ssh/known_hosts without comparing the server's presented host key against the stored key. This allowed a network-positioned attacker to present an arbitrary SSH host key and have the connection silently accepted, enabling a man-in-the-middle attack on remote development sessions. Successful exploitation required the attacker to be in a network position to intercept SSH traffic (e.g., via ARP spoofing, rogue Wi-Fi, or DNS poisoning) and the target hostname to already have an entry in the victim's known_hosts file. This vulnerability is fixed in 1.4304.0.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-44467?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Anthropic Claude Desktop.
How do I fix CVE-2026-44467?
No fix has been published for CVE-2026-44467 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Is CVE-2026-44467 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-44467 in the wild and no public exploit code.