AI relay disables safeguards in Codex and Claude Code

Oct 29, 2026
Symantec found an unauthorized relay that installs genuine Codex and Claude Code tools, routes requests through its infrastructure, and disables security controls.

Dark Reading reports that an unauthorized AI relay is installing genuine command line tools for OpenAI Codex and Anthropic Claude Code on enterprise systems. The Symantec Threat Hunter Team found the service had reached about a dozen organizations since early 2026, mainly in mainland China, with additional cases in South Korea, Taiwan, and Malaysia.

The relay changes the tools to send requests through its own infrastructure instead of OpenAI or Anthropic networks. Its scripts also disable execution sandboxes, enable network access for the write sandbox, turn off telemetry and error reporting, and replace user credentials with tokens issued by the relay.

Symantec observed no malware or other malicious activity linked to the service. However, the relay can access prompts, files, and secrets sent through it, while the disabled sandbox could allow generated commands to run with the user's account privileges.

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