Updated Sep 22, 2026

Static Code Analysis

Find high-risk behaviors in a package coordinate

A package coordinate in, behavior findings out.

Agent

overview

What malcontent-scan does

malcontent looks through a package coordinate for high-risk behaviors. Network calls, filesystem writes, and similar rules become rows in the findings file.

A Managed-fleet smoke on one coordinate printed scanned 1, 0 findings. An empty findings file means malcontent kept no behavior for that coordinate.

Use GuardDog when you want indicator hits such as install scripts. Use OSV Malicious when you want a published MAL id.

source github.com/chainguard-dev/malcontent

use cases

Where malcontent-scan fits

Look for a network behavior

Feed a coordinate and read whether malcontent kept a behavior rule.

Accept a quiet package

Zero findings means malcontent kept no high-risk behavior for that name and version.

Keep indicators on another node

Run GuardDog when the question is an install-script or typosquat signal, not a behavior rule.

reference

malcontent-scan inputs and flags

1 inputs
NameTypeFlagDescription
inputFOLDER--inputFolder of package coordinate JSONL files.

Showing key inputs. malcontent-scan exposes 1 inputs in total.

example

Run malcontent-scan

malcontent-scan · command
malcontent-scan --input ./packages
sample output
malcontent-scan: scanned 1, 0 findings across 0 packages

guidance

Choosing malcontent-scan

Use malcontent for behavior rules such as network or filesystem use. Use GuardDog for malware-indicator hits, and OSV Malicious for a published MAL id.

guarddog

Checks package coordinates for malware indicators.

osv-malicious

Returns published malware advisory ids.

osv-scanner

Matches lockfiles to vulnerability advisories.

faq

malcontent-scan questions

High-risk behaviors on a package coordinate, including unexpected network or filesystem use.

Run malcontent-scan yourself

One package coordinate produced no malcontent behavior finding, so the findings file was empty.

Facts on this page come from the live Trickest tool library.