Safety failure
Realized harm
Claude Code executed a recursive delete from root, destroying all user-owned files in a developer's home directory
AIR-2025-0153 AIR record · 2025-10-claude-code-home-directory-deletion
A real party was affected. This incident caused actual consequences, not a demonstrated capability.
From the supporting source
Claude Code executed a destructive recursive delete command that successfully deleted all user files in my home directory.github.com
The record
Disclosed
2025-10-21
Occurred
2025-10-21
Vendor
Anthropic
Product
Claude Code
Risk domain
Agent behaviour › Unsafe actuation
System type
Generative model
Who acted
Agent acted — Claude Code executed rm -rf and destroyed the home directory
Attack surface
Coding agent
Autonomy level
Semi-autonomous
Initial vector
Autonomous agent action
Impact type
Data destruction
Confidence
High
Submitted by
EAI Internal
Crosswalk
- OWASP Agentic Top 10 (2026)
- ASI01 – Agent Goal Hijack
- MITRE ATLAS
- AML.T0048 – External Harms
- NIST AI RMF
- MEASURE 2.6; MANAGE 1.3
- EU AI Act
- Annex III §1(c)
- ISO/IEC
- TR 24028; 24029-1; 23894
- AIUC-1
- C. Safety
- Scope
- agent misuse
- Mitigation
- Require confirmation for destructive actions; Implement dry-run modes; Use layered safety controls.
- Taxonomy
- Enkrypt AI agent risk taxonomy · Black-Box Red Teaming of Agentic AI: A Taxonomy-Driven Framework for Automated Risk Discovery
Blast radius
one developer's home directory on Ubuntu/WSL2; weeks-to-months of project work, only dotfiles survived
Capability abused
Defense & remediation
Recorded defense
OS file permissions (only reason system files survived); user interrupt (too late)
Guardrail kinds
Permission scope
Guardrail outcome
Silent
Taxonomy & references
Curator notes
Reported by GitHub user mikewolak as issue #10077, titled '[BUG] ## CRITICAL: Claude Code executed rm -rf deleting entire home directory'. The command reportedly targeted / and failed only on permission-protected system paths. No attacker; the agent generated the command while working in a firmware project subdirectory.
Supporting sources
Cite as
Enkrypt AI. "Claude Code executed a recursive delete from root, destroying all user-owned files in a developer's home directory". AIR, AIR-2025-0153. https://agentincident.vercel.app/i/AIR-2025-0153/ (accessed 2026-10-19).