Grok Build apps were open to anyone with the link: am I affected?

Am I affected: if you published a Grok Build app on grok.me and left the access setting on "Anyone with the link", or if you have not checked. Claroc says an app set to "Only you" or "Invited users" answered HTTP 401 when it tried to open the page signed out.

Do now: open the app in a private window. If it loads without sign-in, switch it to "Only you" or "Invited users", or unpublish it. Our advice: rotate any password or key that was in an app a stranger could open, and do not put secrets in code the browser downloads.

What Claroc counted

Claroc Research published the count on November 10, 2026. Its summary says it tried 43,551 Grok app addresses. Of those, 37,571 were still online, and 35,578 (94.7%) opened for anyone with no sign-in. Only 1,993 (5.3%) answered with HTTP 401, which Claroc says is the error an app set to "Only you" or "Invited users" returns. The methods section says subdomain discovery listed 43,601 names under grok.me. The report gives both figures and does not explain the difference of 50.

Each published app gets its own hostname on grok.me. Claroc says Grok proposes four random words for the name, and that the name still lands in passive DNS the first time someone opens the app, because the lookup is for the hostname. A random name does not have to be guessed. Claroc says nothing goes public until the builder clicks Publish. In the paid account it used, the panel offered "Anyone with the link", "Invited users", and "Only you", with "Anyone with the link" already selected.

Most open apps were games, landing pages, and calculators. Claroc says about 1 in 10 held sensitive material, internal business data, or personal data, and that by its estimate roughly 2% held material it rates high or critical. Its methods section, from checking the model against a sample the researchers read, puts the total with private data at roughly 650 to 800 apps. Those are Claroc's own figures. The report does not show how the "1 in 10" line and the 650 to 800 estimate fit together.

Among apps Claroc says it confirmed by hand was a contractor timesheet whose script, which every visitor's browser downloads, held employee accounts with the password in plain text. It also describes staff rosters, a patient briefing, and other internal material, and says it names none of the 30 other organizations. It says 24 of the open apps were built by SpaceXSI and X staff, including a confidential onboarding plan and a sales territory map, and that SpaceXSI took those 24 down after the report and had not done the same for other users' apps when Claroc published.

Claroc says that on two apps it built itself, with made-up data, an app stored with no sign-in let a signed-out visitor add a row, and a team app's sign-in added a Google account before it checked whether that account belonged. It says it proved that only on its own apps, and did not sign in to or change anyone else's.

The Hacker News and Ars Technica report Claroc's findings. They are not a second count.

What SpaceXSI told a reporter, according to Claroc

Claroc says SpaceXSI answered a reporter's questions and said Grok apps stay private until their creator chooses to share one, that publishing takes several steps including a choice between "Only you" and "Anyone with the link", and that employee accounts are set to "Only you" by default. Claroc agrees that nothing is public before Publish is clicked. It says the access step in the paid account it used already had "Anyone with the link" selected, that ordinary users do not get "Only you" as the default, and that the 24 open staff apps show the employee default did not by itself keep SpaceXSI's own material in.

What to do

Claroc's list, for people whose staff build apps with AI:

• Find which builders they use. Grok needs no company account.
• If you have passive DNS, search it for the builders' domains and open what you find in a private window.
• A Grok app that holds anything internal should say "Invited users" or "Only you", and a stranger should get an error page.
• If a sign-in from outside your company gets in, the app needs a list of who may use it.
• Check the script files an app loads for names, emails, and passwords, and unpublish what nobody owns. Claroc says unpublishing takes a grok.me app offline at once.

Our advice, beyond that list: rotate any password or key that was sitting in an app anyone could open, at the place that issued it, and do not store secrets in client code.