GuardDog — The Cyber Toolchain

GuardDog v3.2.0

Wed, 12 Aug 2026 11:10:30 GMT

GuardDog v3.2.0 adds Rust crates scanning, npm provenance-disappearance detection, and excludes devDependencies by default in verify. • Adds `guarddog crates scan ` and `guarddog crates verify ` to scan Rust crates hosted on crates.io using the same YARA + metadata risk engine as other ecosystems. • Adds a new npm metadata check that flags packages when provenance attestations disappear between releases, detecting a potential supply-chain tampering signal. • Excludes npm `devDependencies` by default when running `guarddog npm verify`, reducing noise in CI pipelines that only care about production dependencies. Breaking changes: • `guarddog npm verify` now excludes `devDependencies` by default; setups that previously relied on devDependencies being scanned will no longer flag them unless explicitly included. Full history on Cyber Toolchain: https://cybertoolchain.io/tools/guarddog

GuardDog v3.1.0

Wed, 08 Jul 2026 15:41:52 GMT

GuardDog v3.1.0 adds a PyPI Inspector link for remote findings and a new npm risky_new_dependency metadata rule. • Displays a PyPI Inspector URL in human-readable output for remote PyPI scans that have findings, making file-level triage faster. • Adds new npm metadata rule `risky_new_dependency` that flags packages introducing a risky new transitive dependency. Full history on Cyber Toolchain: https://cybertoolchain.io/tools/guarddog

GuardDog v3.0.0

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 15:38:48 GMT

GuardDog v3 adds kernel-level sandboxing, S3 scanning, risk-based scoring engine, and removes legacy CLI commands. • Adds kernel-level sandbox (Linux via Landlock, macOS via Seatbelt) for all scan operations — blocks network access and restricts filesystem during archive extraction and YARA analysis; use `--no-sandbox` to opt out explicitly. • Supports scanning packages stored in S3 via `s3://` URIs, with AWS credential verification before scan and path-traversal-safe download to a temp directory. • Introduces a risk-based detection engine that correlates code capabilities with threat indicators in the same file to produce a 0–10 severity score, reducing false-positive alert fatigue. • Adds `--metadata` flag to supply a package metadata JSON file for local scans, enabling metadata rules that would otherwise require a registry lookup. • Adds `--zip-password` flag to scan encrypted ZIP archives (`.zip`, `.whl`, `.egg`), with `-` to read the password from stdin. • Breaking change: removes the deprecated top-level `scan` and `verify` CLI commands — ecosystem-prefixed commands (`pypi scan`, `npm scan`, etc.) are now required. Breaking changes: • The deprecated CLI commands `scan` and `verify` have been removed. Full history on Cyber Toolchain: https://cybertoolchain.io/tools/guarddog

GuardDog v3.0.0a2 (Prerelease)

Tue, 16 Jun 2026 16:17:38 GMT

GuardDog v3.0.0a2 adds local and remote archive scanning and drops deprecated `scan`/`verify` CLI commands. • Supports scanning local and remote archives, expanding coverage beyond registry packages. • Improves console output for clearer analysis results. Breaking changes: • The deprecated CLI commands `scan` and `verify` have been removed; workflows using these commands will break on upgrade. Full history on Cyber Toolchain: https://cybertoolchain.io/tools/guarddog

GuardDog v3.0.0a2 (Prerelease)

Tue, 16 Jun 2026 16:17:38 GMT

GuardDog v3.0.0a2 adds encrypted ZIP scanning, S3/remote archive support, and removes legacy top-level commands. • Adds `--zip-password` flag to `scan` commands for extracting password-protected ZIP, WHL, and EGG archives (pass `-` to read from stdin). • Supports scanning remote archives via URL (e.g., GitHub raw links) in addition to local paths and S3 prefixes. • Breaking change: removes the deprecated top-level `scan` and `verify` commands — use ecosystem-prefixed commands (`pypi scan`, `npm scan`, etc.) instead. Breaking changes: • The deprecated CLI commands `scan` and `verify` have been removed. Full history on Cyber Toolchain: https://cybertoolchain.io/tools/guarddog

GuardDog v3.0.0a1 (Prerelease)

Tue, 26 May 2026 15:10:27 GMT

GuardDog v3.0.0a1 adds PyArmor obfuscation detection and a kernel-level sandbox for safer package scanning. • Adds PyArmor obfuscation detection heuristic to catch packages hiding malicious code behind PyArmor. • Adds kernel-level sandbox via nono-py for the scan command, isolating malicious code execution during analysis. • Adds uvx as the primary installation and run method for GuardDog. Full history on Cyber Toolchain: https://cybertoolchain.io/tools/guarddog

GuardDog v2.9.0

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 14:40:20 GMT

GuardDog v2.9.0 adds a screenshot detection heuristic to catch malicious packages. • Adds a screenshot detection heuristic to identify packages that attempt to capture screen content. Full history on Cyber Toolchain: https://cybertoolchain.io/tools/guarddog

GuardDog v2.8.2

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 17:30:37 GMT

GuardDog v2.8.2 adds RubyGems scanning and new detections for DNS exfiltration, API obfuscation, and dynamic code execution. • New detection: identifies sensitive data exfiltration via DNS tunneling in Python packages. • Improved detection of base64 execution using `codecs` and `importlib` dynamic imports in Python. • Improved detection of code execution via compile() and vars() indirection in Python. • New API obfuscation detection rule for npm (JavaScript) packages. • Improved API obfuscation detection rule for Python packages. • Adds support for scanning RubyGems packages alongside existing PyPI and npm support. Full history on Cyber Toolchain: https://cybertoolchain.io/tools/guarddog

GuardDog v2.7.1

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 16:33:19 GMT

GuardDog v2.7.1 adds file exclusion support for YARA scans. • Supports excluding specific files from YARA scan analysis. Full history on Cyber Toolchain: https://cybertoolchain.io/tools/guarddog

GuardDog v2.7.0

Fri, 03 Oct 2025 15:42:23 GMT

GuardDog v2.7.0 adds DLL-loading detection, API obfuscation rules, unicode evasion filtering, and Extensions ecosystem support. • New detection rule for DLL loading patterns in scanned packages. • New rule to detect API obfuscation techniques used to hide malicious behavior. • New filter rule to catch detection evasion via unicode manipulation. • Adds support for scanning the Extensions ecosystem. Breaking changes: • The code execution rule now also applies to `__init__` files, which may produce new findings on packages that were previously clean. Full history on Cyber Toolchain: https://cybertoolchain.io/tools/guarddog

GuardDog v2.6.0

Tue, 13 May 2025 11:32:09 GMT

GuardDog v2.6.0 adds directory verification support and new Go detections for exec, downloads, and data exfiltration. • Adds support for verifying entire directories with the `verify` command, not just individual packages. • New Go detection: identifies Base64-decoded content passed to execution functions. • New Go detection: flags executable downloads within Go packages. • New Go detection: identifies data collection and exfiltration patterns in Go. • Adds a new NPM obfuscation case to existing obfuscation detections. Full history on Cyber Toolchain: https://cybertoolchain.io/tools/guarddog

GuardDog v2.5.0

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 13:26:42 GMT

GuardDog v2.5.0 adds .zip domain detection to shadylinks and brings the verify command to the GitHub Action. • Adds `.zip` domain detection to the `shadylinks` heuristic, catching packages that link to the deceptive `.zip` TLD. • Enables the `verify` command in the GuardDog GitHub Action, allowing signature verification to run in CI pipelines. Full history on Cyber Toolchain: https://cybertoolchain.io/tools/guarddog

GuardDog v2.4.0

Fri, 07 Feb 2025 09:20:31 GMT

GuardDog v2.4.0 adds a GitHub Actions ecosystem so you can scan action packages for malicious behavior. • Adds GitHub Actions as a new supported ecosystem, enabling GuardDog to scan action packages for malicious code and supply-chain risks. Full history on Cyber Toolchain: https://cybertoolchain.io/tools/guarddog

GuardDog v2.2.0

Fri, 10 Jan 2025 14:29:54 GMT

GuardDog v2.2.0 expands npm exfiltration and shady-links detection with new patterns. • Adds new case to the `npm-exfiltration` rule to detect additional data-exfiltration patterns in npm packages. • Adds and improves `shady-links` patterns to broaden detection of suspicious URLs in package metadata and code. • Enhances the Python obfuscation detection rule with additional coverage. Full history on Cyber Toolchain: https://cybertoolchain.io/tools/guarddog

GuardDog v2.0.0

Fri, 19 Jul 2024 10:42:10 GMT

GuardDog v2.0.0 adds YARA/private rule support and Go ecosystem scanning. • Supports running YARA rules and private rules against packages for custom detection logic. • Adds Go ecosystem support, enabling GuardDog to scan Go packages for malicious indicators. • Adds detection for Python sqlite3-based data exfiltration attacks. • Improves DLL hijacking rule coverage for broader Windows attack detection. Full history on Cyber Toolchain: https://cybertoolchain.io/tools/guarddog

GuardDog v1.10.1

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 12:54:59 GMT

GuardDog v1.10.1 adds a --version flag to the CLI • Adds `--version` flag to the CLI Full history on Cyber Toolchain: https://cybertoolchain.io/tools/guarddog

GuardDog v1.8.0

Thu, 23 May 2024 11:16:55 GMT

GuardDog v1.8.0 adds new detections for npm-exfiltrate-sensitive-data, shady-links improvements, compiled binaries in package code, and download_executable missing detection. • Add `npm-exfiltrate-sensitive-data` case • improve `shady-links` matching Full history on Cyber Toolchain: https://cybertoolchain.io/tools/guarddog

GuardDog v1.6.0

Thu, 25 Apr 2024 08:48:52 GMT

GuardDog v1.6.0 adds NPM obfuscated JS detection and moves unclaimed maintainer email domain to New Signal • Adds NPM detection of obfuscated javascript code to identify potentially malicious package behavior • Moves `unclaimed maintainer email domain` signal classification to the new signals framework Full history on Cyber Toolchain: https://cybertoolchain.io/tools/guarddog

GuardDog v1.5.0

Thu, 02 Nov 2023 13:00:20 GMT

GuardDog v1.5.0 introduces an NPM confusion analyzer • Adds NPM confusion analyzer to detect package confusion attacks Full history on Cyber Toolchain: https://cybertoolchain.io/tools/guarddog

GuardDog v1.3.0

Tue, 22 Aug 2023 12:44:46 GMT

Adds a `clipboard` detection rule to identify malware that accesses the system clipboard in published packages. • Adds the `clipboard` detection rule to scan for packages that attempt to access or manipulate the system clipboard upon installation. Full history on Cyber Toolchain: https://cybertoolchain.io/tools/guarddog

GuardDog v1.2.1

Tue, 04 Jul 2023 14:39:32 GMT

GuardDog v1.2.1 adds ARM Docker image support for wider platform compatibility • The GuardDog Docker image is now available for ARM. Full history on Cyber Toolchain: https://cybertoolchain.io/tools/guarddog

GuardDog v1.2

Mon, 03 Jul 2023 07:16:28 GMT

GuardDog v1.2 adds new heuristics for its download-executable module. • Adds new heuristics to the download-executable module. Full history on Cyber Toolchain: https://cybertoolchain.io/tools/guarddog

GuardDog v1.1.4

Thu, 30 Mar 2023 10:57:12 GMT

GuardDog v1.1.4 adds join() detection in exec/eval and a cache location flag • Allow specifying a location where to cache top packages. Full history on Cyber Toolchain: https://cybertoolchain.io/tools/guarddog

GuardDog v1.1.0

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 07:47:27 GMT

GuardDog v1.1.0 adds heuristic to detect PyPI packages with a single Python file and detects base64-encoded dynamic execution via __import__ • Adds detection of PyPI packages consisting of a single Python file using new heuristic logic • Adds detection for dynamic code execution from base64-encoded strings through `__import__` Full history on Cyber Toolchain: https://cybertoolchain.io/tools/guarddog

GuardDog v0.1.5

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 10:37:14 GMT

Adds --exit-non-zero-on-finding flag to GuardDog CLI for CI integration • `--exit-non-zero-on-finding` flag controls whether the CLI exits with a non-zero status code when findings are detected Full history on Cyber Toolchain: https://cybertoolchain.io/tools/guarddog

GuardDog v0.1.4

Mon, 28 Nov 2022 16:10:13 GMT

GuardDog v0.1.4 adds library mode for embedding in other tools • Make GuardDog usable as a library rather than only a CLI Full history on Cyber Toolchain: https://cybertoolchain.io/tools/guarddog