Claude Cowork is powerful because it can directly access and modify your files. But with great power comes inherent risk. This guide explains exactly how Cowork’s security model works, what protections are built in, and what precautions you should take.

Table of Contents

1. The Security Architecture
2. How File Access Works
3. Primary Risk Factors
4. Built-in Protections
5. Essential Security Practices
6. What to Do Before Granting Access
7. Recovery Strategies

The Security Architecture

Running in Isolation

Claude Cowork doesn’t run directly on your computer. Instead, it operates within a lightweight Linux virtual machine (VM):

“Cowork is an agentic feature of claude.ai that runs in a lightweight Linux VM on the user’s computer.”

This isolation provides a security boundary between Claude and your system.

What the VM Contains

The Sandbox Boundary

Claude operates inside a sandboxed environment:

• Can only access folders you explicitly grant
• Cannot reach files outside granted directories
• Cannot modify your system settings directly
• Cannot run processes on your actual machine

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