CVE-2026-22871

The Watchdog Bites Back: CVE-2026-22871 in DataDog GuardDog

Alon Barad
Alon Barad
Software Engineer

Jan 14, 2026·5 min read·10 visits

Executive Summary (TL;DR)

GuardDog, a tool meant to identify malicious Python packages, contained a logic flaw in how it extracted ZIP archives. By misusing `os.path.join` and `zipfile.extract`, it allowed malicious packages to break out of the temporary sandbox and write files anywhere on the file system. This grants attackers RCE on the machines of security researchers and CI/CD pipelines scanning their code.

A critical path traversal vulnerability in GuardDog's archive extraction logic allows malicious PyPI packages to overwrite arbitrary files on the host system, turning the security scanner into an attack vector.

Official Patches

DataDogGitHub Commit fixing the traversal

Fix Analysis (1)

Technical Appendix

CVSS Score
8.7/ 10
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 Systems

GuardDog CLI < 2.7.1CI/CD pipelines using GuardDog for security scanningDeveloper workstations scanning untrusted PyPI packages

Affected Versions Detail

Product
Affected Versions
Fixed Version
GuardDog
DataDog
< 2.7.12.7.1
AttributeDetail
CWE IDCWE-22
Attack VectorNetwork / Local (Malicious File)
CVSS v4.08.7 (High)
ImpactArbitrary File Overwrite / RCE
Vulnerable APIzipfile.ZipFile.extract
Patch StatusFixed in 2.7.1

MITRE ATT&CK Mapping

T1204.002User Execution: Malicious File
Execution
T1059Command and Scripting Interpreter
Execution
CWE-22
Path Traversal

Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')

Known Exploits & Detection

Internal AnalysisExploitation involves crafting a ZIP with absolute paths in filenames.

Vulnerability Timeline

Fix commit authored
2026-01-05
PR merged into main
2026-01-09
CVE Published and Advisory Released
2026-01-13

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