badkeys vulnerable to ASCII control character injection on console via malformed input
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Attack requirements
- None
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · Low · None
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 4.0 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and GitHub.
Summary
badkeys is a tool and library for checking cryptographic public keys for known vulnerabilities. In versions 0.0.15 and below, an attacker may inject content with ASCII control characters like vertical tabs, ANSI escape sequences, etc., that can create misleading output of the badkeys command-line tool. This impacts scanning DKIM keys (both --dkim and --dkim-dns), SSH keys (--ssh-lines mode), and filenames in various modes. This issue is fixed in version 0.0.16.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- Poc
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| badkeys | badkeys | before 0.0.16 | 0.0.16 | Patch available | CNA |
| — | badkeys (PyPI) | before 0.0.16 | 0.0.16 | Patch available | GHSA-wjpc-4f29-83h3 |
- badkeys Vendorbadkeys Affected before 0.0.16 Fixed in 0.0.16 Patch available CNA
- badkeys (PyPI) Vendor— Affected before 0.0.16 Fixed in 0.0.16 Patch available GHSA-wjpc-4f29-83h3
Remediation
- Fix · CNA badkeys (badkeys) Fixed in 0.0.16
- Fix · GHSA-wjpc-4f29-83h3 badkeys (PyPI) Fixed in 0.0.16 Advisory →
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-21439
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-wjpc-4f29-83h3
References
Patch 2
Advisory 2
Sources
- CVE-2026-21439 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-21439 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-wjpc-4f29-83h3 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences