ruvnet/ruflo · error · Error

Key contains disallowed characters

Error message

Key contains disallowed characters

What it means

Thrown by validateMemoryInput when a memory key matches DANGEROUS_KEY_PATTERN — shell metacharacters (; & | ` $ ( ) { } [ ] < > ! # \ null) or a path-traversal sequence (../ or ..\). This is the #1425 hardening against command injection and path traversal: keys eventually form filesystem paths and shell arguments, so dangerous characters are rejected outright. sanitizeMemoryKey exists to scrub derived keys before this check.

Source

Thrown at v3/@claude-flow/cli/src/mcp-tools/memory-tools.ts:83

// #1425 — single source of truth for the dangerous-character set rejected by
// validateMemoryInput. Imported by sanitizeMemoryKey so write-side sanitization
// and read-side rejection can never drift apart (the symmetry bug behind #1884).
const DANGEROUS_KEY_CHARS = /[;&|`$(){}[\]<>!#\\\0]|\.\.[/\\]/g;
const DANGEROUS_KEY_PATTERN = /[;&|`$(){}[\]<>!#\\\0]|\.\.[/\\]/;

function validateMemoryInput(key?: string, value?: string, query?: string, namespace?: string): void {
  if (key && key.length > MAX_KEY_LENGTH) {
    throw new Error(`Key exceeds maximum length of ${MAX_KEY_LENGTH} characters`);
  }
  if (value && value.length > MAX_VALUE_SIZE) {
    throw new Error(`Value exceeds maximum size of ${MAX_VALUE_SIZE} bytes`);
  }
  if (query && query.length > MAX_QUERY_LENGTH) {
    throw new Error(`Query exceeds maximum length of ${MAX_QUERY_LENGTH} characters`);
  }
  // Reject path traversal and shell metacharacters in keys/namespaces (#1425)
  if (key && DANGEROUS_KEY_PATTERN.test(key)) {
    throw new Error('Key contains disallowed characters');
  }
  if (namespace && DANGEROUS_KEY_PATTERN.test(namespace)) {
    throw new Error('Namespace contains disallowed characters');
  }
}

// #1884 — sanitize a key produced from arbitrary input (markdown headings,
// frontmatter names, file names) so it survives validateMemoryInput on the
// read/delete path. Replaces every dangerous char with `_`. Truncates to
// MAX_KEY_LENGTH so the bound check in validateMemoryInput also passes.
// Keep this in sync with DANGEROUS_KEY_PATTERN — they share DANGEROUS_KEY_CHARS.
function sanitizeMemoryKey(key: string): string {
  const safe = key.replace(DANGEROUS_KEY_CHARS, '_');
  return safe.length > MAX_KEY_LENGTH ? safe.slice(0, MAX_KEY_LENGTH) : safe;
}

// #1937 — minimal glob → RegExp helper for memory_import_claude exclusion
// patterns. Anchored. Supports the three operators the issue's voice-fidelity

View on GitHub (pinned to 6b01dc5a68)

Solutions

1. Sanitise derived keys with sanitizeMemoryKey before the memory call (replaces dangerous chars with '_').
2. Restrict keys to an allowlist charset ([A-Za-z0-9._-]).
3. Hash arbitrary input with sha256 and use the hex digest as the key.
4. Never route raw user/LLM text into a key without scrubbing.

Example fix

// before
memory store --key "a;b | rm -rf" --value "x"
// after
const key = userInput.replace(/[;&|`$(){}[\]<>!#\\\0]|\.\.[\/\\]/g, '_')
memory store --key "$key" --value "x"

const DANGEROUS = /[;&|`$(){}[\]<>!#\\\0]|\.\.[\/\\]/;
function sanitizeKey(key) {
  if (DANGEROUS.test(key)) {
    return key.replace(/[;&|`$(){}[\]<>!#\\\0]|\.\.[\/\\]/g, '_');
  }
  return key;
}

function isSafeMemoryKey(k: string): boolean {
  return !/[;&|`$(){}[\]<>!#\\\0]|\.\.[\/\\]/.test(k) && k.length <= 1024;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling memory store/retrieve/delete with a key containing characters like ';', '|', '$', backticks, '../', or null bytes. The regex test is non-global and returns true on the first match.

Common situations: User input or file names used directly as keys (e.g. 'my/file'); LLM-generated keys with punctuation; path-traversal attempts; copy-pasted strings with smart quotes or angle brackets; keys built by string concatenation without sanitisation.

Related errors

• Namespace contains disallowed characters
• ${label} contains null bytes
• basePath contains disallowed characters
• Dangerous key segment rejected: ${part}
• Key exceeds maximum length of ${MAX_KEY_LENGTH} characters

AI-assisted analysis of ruvnet/ruflo@6b01dc5a68 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b9c5bad9e2dcc4bf. Report an issue: GitHub.