@zokugun/fs-path-sanitize

Sanitize filesystem paths and path segments to prevent directory traversal, invalid characters, and reserved names. Lightweight and compatible with both ESM and CommonJS.

Features

• Prevent directory traversal and unsafe path resolution
• Remove or replace invalid, restricted, or control characters
• Configurable Sanitizer with replace/empty listeners for custom behavior
• Small package with ESM and CJS builds

Installation

npm add @zokugun/fs-path-sanitize

Quick Start

import { sanitizePath, sanitizeSegment } from '@zokugun/fs-path-sanitize';

console.log(sanitizePath('../etc/passwd')); // sanitized, safe path
console.log(sanitizeSegment('con\0'));    // sanitized segment

API reference

• isSafePath(path: string, target?: Target | 'auto'): boolean: Check if a path is safe.
• isSafeSegment(segment: string, target?: Target | 'auto'): boolean: Check if a single path segment is safe.
• sanitizePath(path: string, options?: { absolute?: boolean; parent?: string | null; replacement?: string | null; resolve?: Resolver | null; target?: Target | 'auto' }): DResult<string>: Sanitize a path and return a result or error.
• sanitizeSegment(segment: string, options?: { replacement?: string | null; target?: Target | 'auto' }): string: Sanitize a single segment.
• validatePath(path: string, target?: Target | 'auto'): DResult<string>: Validate a path; returns ok(path) or err(message).
• validateSegment(segment: string, target?: Target | 'auto'): DResult<string>: Validate a segment; returns ok(segment) or err(message).
• Sanitizer: Class. Obtain with Sanitizer.getInstance(target: Target). Instance methods: isSafePath, isSafeSegment, sanitizePath, sanitizeSegment, validatePath, validateSegment.
• Types and handlers:
  • Target: supported target strings (see src/target.ts).
  • Resolver: (path: string) => string or (path: string, separator: string) => string.
  • ReplaceListener, EmptyListener: listener function types. Default handlers: ReplaceHandler, EmptyHandler.

Targets

Target	Purpose
posix	Unix-style filename rules for POSIX systems and utilities. Very very strict.
universal	Cross-platform safe preset that combines Linux, macOS and Windows restrictions.
linux.safe	Linux safe preset.
macos.safe	macOS safe preset; covering common HFS/APFS restrictions.
windows.safe	Windows safe preset; combining FAT32/NTFS restrictions for compatibility.
linux.esc.ansic	Linux preset; safe only and only if it's escaped with ANSI-C quoting
linux.esc.single	Linux preset; safe only and only if it's escaped with single quotes
macos.apfs.safe	APFS-safe.
macos.apfs.esc.ansic	APFS preset; safe only and only if it's escaped with ANSI-C quoting
macos.apfs.esc.single	APFS preset; safe only and only if it's escaped with single quotes
macos.hfs.safe	HFS-safe.
macos.hfs.esc.ansic	HFS preset; safe only and only if it's escaped with ANSI-C quoting
macos.hfs.esc.single	HFS preset; safe only and only if it's escaped with single quotes
windows.exfat	exFAT safe preset
windows.fat32	FAT32 safe preset
windows.ntfs	NTFS safe preset

Shell Targets

• *.esc.ansic: allows the file (file\nname.txt) in touch $'file\nname.txt' to be considered safe.
• *.esc.single: allows the file (*file.txt) in touch '*file.txt' or touch \*file.txt to be considered safe.

Restricted Characters

Below are the actual characters and simple rules enforced per target.

• posix: allows uppercase A-Z, lowercase a-z, digits 0-9, underscore _, dot ., hyphen -.
• universal: combines Windows and POSIX restrictions. Disallows " * : < > ? | + , ; = [ ] : (colon), NUL (U+0000), control characters (U+0000–U+001F, U+007F), Unicode non-characters (U+FFF0–U+FFFF), various Unicode spaces (e.g. U+00A0, U+1680, U+2000–U+200A, U+202F, U+205F, U+3000), shell-special characters (space, *, ?, [, ], $, `, ", ', |, &, ;, <, >), and relative path segments like ./...
• linux.safe: disallows shell-special characters (space, *, ?, [, ], $, `, ", ', |, &, ;, <, >), control characters, NUL, and relative path segments.
• linux.esc.single, macos.*.esc.single: disallows control characters and NUL.
• linux.esc.ansic, macos.*.esc.ansic: disallows NUL.
• macos.hfs.safe, macos.safe: disallows colon (:), shell-special characters, control characters, NUL, and relative segments. HFS historically reserves : as a separator.
• macos.apfs.safe: disallows shell-special characters, control characters, NUL, and relative segments.
• windows.exfat: disallows " * : < > ? | and control characters (U+0000–U+001F, U+007F); rejects NUL and relative traversal sequences.
• windows.fat32, windows.safe: disallows " * : < > ? | + , ; = [ ], control characters, leading spaces, trailing spaces or trailing dots, NUL, and relative traversal sequences.
• windows.ntfs: disallows " * : < > ? |, NUL, control characters, certain Unicode non-characters; additionally checks reserved NTFS volume root names.

Restricted Keywords

These names are rejected (case-insensitive) when the corresponding target enforces keyword rules.

• FAT32 reserved names (applies to windows.fat32, windows.safe, and universal):

  • CON, PRN, AUX, NUL
  • COM1..COM9 (also superscript forms COM¹, COM², COM³)
  • LPT1..LPT9 (and superscript forms LPT¹, LPT², LPT³)
  • CLOCK$, CONIN$, CONOUT$, CONERR$, CONFIG$
  • File extensions are ignored. So, CON.txt or CON.tar.gz are treated as CON.

• NTFS volume-root reserved names (applies to windows.ntfs and universal):

  • $Mft, $MftMirr, $LogFile, $Volume, $AttrDef, $Bitmap, $Boot, $BadClus, $Secure, $Upcase, $Extend, $Quota, $ObjId, $Reparse

Contributions

Contributions are most welcome. Please:

• Open issues and feature requests under the repository discussions.
• Follow the CONTRIBUTING.md.

Donations

Support this project by becoming a financial contributor.

	ko-fi.com/daiyam
	liberapay.com/daiyam/donate
	paypal.me/daiyam99

License

Copyright © 2026-present Baptiste Augrain

Licensed under the MIT license.