Claude Code fails to ignore secrets, posing security risks

As reported by The Register, Anthropic's Claude Code fails to ignore sensitive information like passwords and API keys, even when explicitly instructed to do so via configuration files.

Developers commonly store credentials in .env files, intending to block them from public repositories using .gitignore. Claude Code offers a similar mechanism with .claudeignore. However, testing by The Register and others revealed that Claude Code reads .env files despite entries in .claudeignore and even ignores .gitignore directives. This could allow malicious actors to extract secrets through indirect prompt injection, especially with tool-enabled AI agents. Claude Code's own warnings about committing .env files to version control contradict its behavior of reading them.

This failure to respect ignore directives presents significant security implications, potentially exposing sensitive data. While a settings.json file appears to offer a workaround, its complex syntax and reported bugs make it an unreliable solution, according to The Register.

Source: The Register