CVE-2026-22871: Guarddog Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-xg9w-vg3g-6m68",
  "modified" : "2026-01-13T21:54:49Z",
  "published" : "2026-01-13T21:54:49Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2026-22871" ],
  "summary" : "GuardDog Path Traversal Vulnerability Leads to Arbitrary File Overwrite and RCE",
  "details" : "## Summary\n\nA **path traversal vulnerability** exists in GuardDog's `safe_extract()` function that allows malicious PyPI packages to write arbitrary files outside the intended extraction directory, leading to **Arbitrary File Overwrite** and **Remote Code Execution** on systems running GuardDog.\n\n**CWE:** CWE-22 (Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory)\n\n## Details\n\n### Vulnerable Code\n\n**File:** `guarddog/utils/archives.py`\n\n```python\nelif zipfile.is_zipfile(source_archive):\n    with zipfile.ZipFile(source_archive, \"r\") as zip:\n        for file in zip.namelist():\n            # Note: zip.extract cleans up any malicious file name\n            # such as directory traversal attempts This is not the\n            # case of zipfile.extractall\n            zip.extract(file, path=os.path.join(target_directory, file))  # ❌ VULNERABLE\n```\n\n### Root Cause\n\nThe comment about `zip.extract()` fooled me at first :) then I noticed the `os.path.join()` call. \nThe vulnerability stems from **incorrect usage of Python's `zipfile.ZipFile.extract()` API**:\n\n- The `path` parameter should be the **target directory**, not a full file path\n- `extract()` automatically appends the member name to the path\n- By passing `os.path.join(target_directory, file)`, GuardDog causes the filename to be appended **twice**\n- This breaks zipfile's built-in path traversal sanitization\n\n### Attack Vector\n\n1. Attacker creates malicious wheel with path traversal filenames\n2. Uploads to PyPI or distributes directly\n3. Package scan: `guarddog pypi scan malicious-pkg`\n4. GuardDog downloads and extracts the package\n5. Malicious files written to arbitrary locations\n6. Code execution could be achieved\n\n## Impact\n\nImpact depends on how GuardDog is running and under which environment.\n\n### Critical Scenarios\n\n1. **Immediate Code Execution**\n   - Write to `~/.bashrc` → executes on next shell\n   - Write to `~/.profile` → executes on login\n\n2. **Persistent Backdoors**\n   - Write to `~/.ssh/authorized_keys` → SSH access\n   - Write to `/etc/cron.d/malicious` → scheduled execution (if root)\n   - Write to systemd user services → persistent execution\n\nand more...\n\n## Credits\n\n**Reported by:** Charbel (dwbruijn)",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V4",
    "score" : "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "PyPI",
      "name" : "guarddog"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "2.7.1"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/DataDog/guarddog/security/advisories/GHSA-xg9w-vg3g-6m68"
  }, {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-22871"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/DataDog/guarddog/commit/9aa6a725b2c71d537d3c18d1c15621395ebb879c"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/DataDog/guarddog"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-22" ],
    "severity" : "HIGH",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2026-01-13T21:54:49Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2026-01-13T21:15:55Z"
  }
}