---
title: "GHSA-mv2c-jwm9-pfrq"
description: "Sanctions screening is bypassed by single-character perturbations inside sanctioned names. Affected and fixed versions of qwed-finance."
url: https://qwedai.com/security/advisories/ghsa-mv2c-jwm9-pfrq
---

# GHSA-mv2c-jwm9-pfrq

Sanctions screening is bypassed by single-character perturbations inside sanctioned names

### Impact

Sanctions screening in `qwed-finance` (`sanctions_match` / `normalize_for_screening`, used by `CrossGuard.verify_swift_with_sanctions` and `UCPIntegration.verify_iso20022_payment`) can be bypassed by changing a single character inside a sanctioned name. A payment to a sanctioned party passes screening when the name is perturbed in ways a human reader — or a payment operator — would still read as the same party.

Reproduced on v3.0.0 with sanctions list `["EVIL CORP"]` and the name in the MT103 `:59:` beneficiary field:

| Beneficiary name | Result |
| --- | --- |
| `EVIL CORP` | blocked (control) |
| `EV-IL CORP` | **passed** |
| `E.V.I.L. CORP` | **passed** |
| `ÉVIL CORP` | **passed** |
| `EVıL CORP` (dotless i) | **passed** |
| small-capital letters `ᴇᴠɪʟ ᴄᴏʀᴘ` | **passed** |

**Who is affected:** applications that use `qwed-finance` sanctions screening on SWIFT MT or ISO 20022 messages generated by an LLM or another untrusted source. The npm SDK does not expose these code paths.

### Root cause

`normalize_for_screening` maps every non-alphanumeric character to a space, so punctuation inside a word splits it into separate tokens (`EV IL`), which no longer contain the sanctioned token. Diacritics are not folded, and Latin look-alike letters that NFKC does not fold (small capitals, dotless i) are neither normalized nor flagged by the mixed-script check.

### Patches

Fixed in **qwed-finance 3.0.1** ([release](https://github.com/QWED-AI/qwed-finance/releases/tag/v3.0.1)). Upgrade with `pip install -U qwed-finance==3.0.1`.

`normalize_for_screening` now:

-   folds diacritics and stray combining marks (NFKD followed by mark removal);
-   maps Latin look-alike letters (small capitals, dotless i) and common Cyrillic/Greek homoglyphs to a Latin skeleton.

`sanctions_match` additionally compares separator-free forms in the forward direction, so punctuation or spacing inserted inside a word no longer splits the sanctioned name. Address fragments remain forward-only. Transliterations and true aliases still require alias-structured list data.

### Workarounds

-   Additionally compare names with all non-alphanumeric characters removed (not replaced with spaces).
-   Fold diacritics (NFKD and drop combining marks) and apply a confusables skeleton (Unicode TR39) to both sides before matching, or route any name that changes under these folds to manual review.
-   Do not treat a `passed` sanctions result from affected versions as a sole control.

### References

Reproduced on `qwed-finance` 3.0.0 (`bb0cdf3`).