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Rule Reference

SEC374lintai-ai-securitystableclaude_settingswarn

Claude settings: wildcard WebSearch permissions

Claude settings permissions allow `WebSearch(*)` in a shared committed config

Provider
lintai-ai-security
Surface
claude_settings
Scope
per_file
Tier
stable
Severity
warn
Confidence
high
Detection
structural
Remediation
message_only

Activation Model

Preset Membership

This rule is part of the builtin activation graph through these preset memberships.

previewmembership
claudemembership

Lifecycle

Stable Lifecycle Contract

State

stable_gated

Graduation rationale

Checks shared Claude settings permissions for explicit wildcard `WebSearch(*)` grants.

Deterministic signal basis

ClaudeSettingsSignals exact string detection for `WebSearch(*)` inside permissions.allow on parsed Claude settings JSON.

Malicious corpus
claude-settings-websearch-wildcard
Benign corpus
claude-settings-websearch-specific-safe
structured evidence required remediation reviewed
Canonical note

Structural stable rule intended as a high-precision check with deterministic evidence.

Nearby Signals

Related Rules

SEC362Claude settings: wildcard Bash permissionsClaude settings permissions allow `Bash(*)` in a shared committed configclaude_settingsstable
SEC364Claude settings: bypassPermissions default modeClaude settings set `permissions.defaultMode` to `bypassPermissions` in a shared committed configclaude_settingsstable
SEC367Claude settings: wildcard WebFetch permissionsClaude settings permissions allow `WebFetch(*)` in a shared committed configclaude_settingsstable
SEC369Claude settings: wildcard Write permissionsClaude settings permissions allow `Write(*)` in a shared committed configclaude_settingsstable
SEC372Claude settings: wildcard Read permissionsClaude settings permissions allow `Read(*)` in a shared committed configclaude_settingsstable
SEC373Claude settings: wildcard Edit permissionsClaude settings permissions allow `Edit(*)` in a shared committed configclaude_settingsstable

Why It Matters ​

SEC374 flags committed Claude settings files when permissions.allow contains the exact wildcard search grant WebSearch(*).

This is useful because:

  • shared Claude settings often become team-wide defaults by copy/paste
  • WebSearch(*) grants broad search capability instead of a reviewed allowlist
  • broad search access is harder to defend in code review when a workflow only needs a narrow, documented search surface

What Triggers ​

This rule applies only to committed Claude settings surfaces:

  • .claude/settings.json
  • claude/settings.json

It triggers when:

  • permissions.allow contains the exact string WebSearch(*)

It does not trigger on:

  • narrower reviewed patterns such as WebSearch(site:docs.example.com)
  • fixture-like test/example paths

Examples ​

Bad:

json
{
  "permissions": {
    "allow": ["WebSearch(*)", "Read(*)"]
  }
}

Better:

json
{
  "permissions": {
    "allow": ["WebSearch(site:docs.example.com)", "Read(*)"]
  }
}

Remediation ​

  • replace WebSearch(*) with specific reviewed search patterns
  • scope shared search permissions to the narrowest set of queries or domains the workflow actually needs