---
id: CVE-2026-44972
aliases:
  - GHSA-m5p4-gvpx-4mvr
  - PYSEC-2026-2506
title: >-
  GuardDog: Unsanitized human-readable scan output allows terminal escape
  injection from malicious package content
summary: >-
  GuardDog: Unsanitized human-readable scan output allows terminal escape
  injection from malicious package content
severity: medium
cvss: 5
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N'
vendor: guarddog
product: guarddog
ecosystem: pip
affected:
  - 'guarddog >= 2.6.0, <= 2.9.0'
published: '2026-05-11'
updated: '2026-07-13'
source: OSV
sourceUrl: 'https://osv.dev/vulnerability/GHSA-m5p4-gvpx-4mvr'
references:
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/DataDog/guarddog/security/advisories/GHSA-m5p4-gvpx-4mvr
  - url: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-44972'
  - url: 'https://github.com/DataDog/guarddog'
tags:
  - osv
  - pip
epss: 0.00113
epssPercentile: 0.01592
ingestedAt: '2026-07-13T18:58:00.307Z'
---

## Overview

# Summary
GuardDog includes attacker-controlled filenames, file locations, messages, and code snippets in its default human-readable output without escaping terminal control characters. A malicious package can therefore inject ANSI or OSC escape sequences into analyst terminals or CI logs.

# Description
The finding formatter stores file paths and snippets from scanned content:

```python
location = file_path + ":" + str(start_line)
finding = {
    "location": location,
    "code": code,
    "message": result["extra"]["message"],
}
```

The human-readable reporter later prints these values directly:

```python
"  * " + finding["message"] + " at " + finding["location"] + "\n    " + _format_code_line_for_output(finding["code"])
```

No escaping is applied for control characters such as `\x1b`. A malicious package can therefore ship a filename like:

```text
evil\x1b[2J.py
```

or matched source lines containing terminal escapes, which survive into the final CLI output.

# Reproduction summary
1. Create a file whose name contains `\x1b[2J`.
2. Feed a semgrep-style result referencing that file into `Analyzer._format_semgrep_response()`.
3. Render the result with `HumanReadableReporter.print_scan_results()`.
4. The output string contains the raw escape bytes, which a terminal may interpret.

# Key code paths
- `guarddog/analyzer/analyzer.py:377-392`
- `guarddog/reporters/human_readable.py:36-42`
- `guarddog/reporters/human_readable.py:84-91`

# Practical impact
This can be used to:
- clear or rewrite analyst terminal output
- inject misleading or spoofed log content in CI
- emit clickable OSC 8 hyperlinks or title changes in compatible terminals

# Prior public disclosure check
As of 2026-03-18, no matching public GitHub advisory, CVE, or public repo issue was found for this specific bug.

# Suggested fix
Escape or strip terminal control characters before rendering any attacker-controlled value in human-readable output. This should cover package names, file paths, messages, and code snippets.

## Affected packages

- `guarddog >= 2.6.0, <= 2.9.0`

## Remediation

Refer to the advisory for the patched release.