Claroc Finds 35,578 Grok Build Apps Open Without Sign-In

What happened

According to security firm Claroc, which published its research on 10 November 2026, 35,578 of 37,571 live apps built with Grok Build could be opened by anyone without a sign-in. Grok Build is the app-building tool from SpaceXSI, the company formerly known as xAI. Claroc said some of the open apps held internal corporate documents, medical records and passwords stored in plain text. It also counted internal data from 30 other organisations, six of them on the Fortune 500 list.

The weak point was the web address. Each published app receives a randomised address under the grok.me domain. Those addresses could be discovered through passive DNS records, which are internet lookup logs that some outside services collect. Claroc's researchers used common discovery methods to find app names, then loaded each app's first page once without logging in, as an ordinary visitor would.

SpaceXSI has removed the 24 apps built by staff at SpaceXSI and X. It has not removed the apps published by other users. SpaceXSI has said Grok apps stay private until their creators share them, that publishing involves several steps, and that employee accounts default to a setting labelled "Only you". Claroc replied that the owners of the open apps went through the same steps. It also said that, in its own paid test account, the "Anyone with the link" option was already selected when it published test apps.

Why it matters for businesses that automate work

AI app builders let staff turn an idea into a working tool in minutes, often outside the normal review by an IT team. Analysts covering the case point out that the same speed is what makes a shared link risky. A sales map, a patient briefing and a staff roster can all sit behind a public link pattern like this one.

The problem is not confined to Grok. In Claroc's test, the ChatGPT app builder kept new apps set to "Only me" until the researchers changed the setting. The danger lies in the default sharing setting and in how easily a link can be found, not in one vendor alone. Cybernews reported that Claroc advises organisations to audit which AI app-building platforms their staff use.

The figures also need care. Claroc estimates that 650 to 800 of the open apps held private data. The Hacker News reports that about one in ten contained internal business or personal data. Those two figures imply very different totals, and the reporting does not reconcile them. Claroc tested only its own apps, so it cannot say whether any open app let visitors change data. Only one of the exposed apps asked for a password. The reporting does not show that anyone other than the researchers used the links.

What changes in practice

For a business of any size, the first step is to find out what has been published. Staff may have used chat-based builders, coding agents or free hosting pages without telling IT. The following steps are a practical starting point:

1. List every app, dashboard, form or page that staff have published with an AI tool, and note who owns each one.
2. Open each link in a private browser window while signed out. If the page loads, it is open to anyone who has the address.
3. Check the sharing setting on every staff and paid account, not only the setting on the owner's own account.
4. Remove or lock any link that shows customer, staff or medical information, and change any password that appeared in a page.
5. Set a written rule that company data goes into an externally hosted app only after the IT lead or data owner signs off.

This is a check you can run in an afternoon, but it does not stop the next exposure on its own. Someone still has to repeat it on a schedule, because new apps appear every week.

What to watch next

Three questions remain open. The first is whether SpaceXSI changes Grok Build's default sharing behaviour. The second is whether it adds controls that let an organisation manage sharing for all its staff. The third is whether it notifies the companies whose data appeared in open apps. Claroc has said SpaceXSI had not said it would contact the owners of the other open apps, so Claroc began notifying affected organisations itself. By publication it had emailed three of them.