Anthropic's preserved thinking blocks account-switching distillation attacks

ClaudeDevs · x · 2026-09-29

Anthropic is extending preserved thinking to Claude Sonnet 5.5 to curb distillation attacks via account-switching. Thinking blocks are now tied to the org that produced them: if you switch accounts mid-session, Claude rereads the session and regenerates its thinking. The API also verifies each block's signature—whether the current model can read it and whether the prefix (system prompt, tools, prior messages) is unchanged—rejecting or dropping blocks on mismatch. Prefix enforcement is default for accounts created after Aug 31, 2026; Anthropic recommends append-only integrations for everyone.

Related event: Anthropic Launches Claude Sonnet 5.5: 30% Faster, Up to 30% Cheaper(30 posts)→

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