Medical records, passwords, even SpaceXSI’s own sales files: Elon Musk’s AI app builder left 35,000 apps wide open, researchers say
Security firm Claroc says the “vibe-coding” tool shared apps with “anyone with the link” by default, and the links were easy to find. Even SpaceXSI’s own sales files were exposed.
More than 35,000 apps made with Grok Build, an AI tool that writes working software from plain-English instructions, were sitting open on the internet for anyone to read, according to research published Nov. 10 by the security firm Claroc. The exposed apps revealed sensitive data such as medical exam results, employee names and ID numbers, confidential business plans and even passwords stored in plain text.
Grok Build is made by SpaceXSI, the company formed by merging Elon Musk’s rocket maker SpaceX and his AI startup xAI. (“SI” is the federal government’s new preferred label for AI, short for “super intelligence.”) Tools like it are called “vibe-coding” apps: you describe what you want in ordinary words and the AI builds the app in minutes, no programming required.
What went wrong
When you finish an app, Grok Build gives you a link to share it. Claroc says the tool set that link to “Anyone with the link” by default, rather than “only you” or “invited people.” So apps their makers assumed were private were open to the public.
The links were also easy to find. Grok put the random, hard-to-guess part of each web address to the left of the domain (for example, cinder-crane-sand-frost.grok.me). That let anyone list thousands of live links using public internet directories called passive DNS databases, which log newly seen web addresses. Had the random part been placed after the domain — the way Google, ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini share links — the addresses would have stayed hidden, Claroc said.
Who was exposed
Claroc said the leaked apps included a Peruvian construction firm’s dashboard of 3,784 worker medical exams, a Tesla service-center scorecard naming 22 technicians, a hospital staff roster of about 3,565 people, and a car-transport company’s desk of roughly 4,000 orders with prices. About two dozen of the exposed apps belonged to SpaceXSI itself, including a confidential sales-hire onboarding plan and a map of 594 sales accounts.
SpaceXSI removed its own 24 apps within hours after Ars Technica asked about them, according to Ars Technica. A representative for Cursor, the coding service SpaceXSI recently bought, said Grok apps are “private by default,” but Claroc’s tests found the tool required users to change the “Anyone with the link” setting themselves. SpaceXSI did not answer whether it would notify affected customers.
What it means for you
If you or a coworker have built apps with Grok Build — or similar tools such as Lovable, Bolt or Replit, which Claroc says share the same risk — open each app’s sharing settings and switch it to “invited people” or “only you” unless you meant to make it public. Treat anything you type into these tools, such as customer lists or health data, as if it could become public.
Source: Claroc: GhostShares — Grok Build apps exposed, Nov. 10, 2026; Ars Technica, Nov. 10, 2026.