Claude Code's Leaked Source Spawned Malware and a DMCA Disaster

John Z Black Apr 3, 2026 AI Security #anthropic #claude-code #vidar #infostealer #dmca #github #supply-chain

Anthropic shipped Claude Code’s full source to npm. Again. Second time in thirteen months. Same mistake, same missing config line.

Within 24 hours, someone had a GitHub repo up advertising “unlocked enterprise features” from the leaked code. It was actually pushing Vidar infostealer malware and a SOCKS5 backdoor called GhostSocks. The repo’s still being updated with fresh payloads.

Then Anthropic made it worse. Their DMCA takedown was supposed to hit 96 repos containing the leaked code. Instead, GitHub swept up the entire fork network, including forks of Anthropic’s own legitimate public repo. 8,100 repositories went down. Developers who’d forked Claude Code to submit bug fixes found their work deleted.

Anthropic called it “not intentional” and filed a retraction. But the damage was done: they burned goodwill with their own contributor community and didn’t actually contain the leak. The code was already archived and mirrored everywhere.

If you cloned any “Claude Code” repo in the past 72 hours, especially anything promising enterprise features, scan your system immediately.

Read the full breakdown of Anthropic’s compounding disaster