nodesafe

Security scanner for ComfyUI custom nodes — and the emerging standard for node-based workflow plugin security.

nodesafe scans third-party plugins/nodes before you install them in node-based workflow tools, detecting malicious code with a cascading pipeline that combines static analysis, signature matching, machine learning, and optional semantic analysis with an LLM. Starting point: the ComfyUI ecosystem.

Why this exists

In June 2024, ComfyUI_LLMVISION stole browser credentials and crypto wallets from hundreds of users. In April 2026, a botnet compromised 1,000+ ComfyUI instances by auto-installing malicious nodes via the Manager. The custom_nodes ecosystem is large, fast-moving, and largely unverified.

nodesafe scans before you install.

Quick start

pip install nodesafe
nodesafe scan /path/to/custom_node

Or directly without installing:

uvx nodesafe scan /path/to/custom_node

How it works

A 9-layer cascading pipeline. Each layer more expensive than the previous. Most clean nodes pass in <100ms; only ambiguous cases escalate.

Current state (v0.5.1): Layers 0-5 functional and shipping on PyPI. 87 tests passing across Python 3.10–3.12 × Linux/macOS/Windows. Layer 3 includes 7 obfuscation detectors that catch char-code keyword construction, split-concat, high-entropy literals, suspicious identifier shapes, Unicode homoglyph attacks, nested decoder chains, and minified files. CLI supports --batch for scanning a parent directory with many nodes at once. Layers 6-8 in the M3-M4 roadmap.

Features

• ✓ Pure static analysis — never executes scanned code
• ✓ Zero telemetry by default — this policy is immutable
• ✓ Works offline (after the first signature update)
• ✓ Multiple output formats: JSON, Markdown (SARIF coming in v0.6 for GitHub Code Scanning integration)
• ✓ GitHub Action ready — see the example workflow
• ✓ Pre-commit hook ready — for CI/CD of custom_nodes repositories
• ✓ Local-first LLM analysis — Ollama by default, cloud opt-in with BYO key
• ✓ OSS Apache 2.0 — no freemium, no hidden SaaS, no paid whitelisting

Usage

Scan a directory

nodesafe scan /path/to/custom_node

JSON output

nodesafe scan /path/to/custom_node --format json

Only cheap layers (fast, no aggregate score)

nodesafe scan /path/to/custom_node --layers 0,1,2,3

Batch mode (scan a whole custom_nodes/ folder at once)

nodesafe scan ComfyUI/custom_nodes --batch

Emits a per-node verdict plus an aggregate "worst verdict" line. Use --format json to get an array of per-node summaries for tooling.

Update signatures

nodesafe update

Verify installation

nodesafe doctor

Retrospective analysis

Would nodesafe have detected the historical incidents? We apply the pipeline mentally to each case:

Full analysis in docs/retrospective-analysis.md.

Honest limitations

nodesafe is static analysis, not a sandbox. Its limits:

• It does not prevent upstream supply chain attacks (a legitimate provider being compromised). It detects the malware when it is distributed in nodes, not the original compromise.
• It is not a replacement for the Manager — it is complementary; ideally integrated.
• It does not monitor runtime behavior — that is the job of an IDS/EDR.
• False positives happen — the policy is conservative, but every flag shows exactly what triggered the alert so you can decide.

Configuration

~/.config/nodesafe/config.toml (optional — sane defaults):

[scanner]
default_layers = "0,1,2,3,4,5,6"   # Layer 8 NOT included by default
fail_on = "suspicious"

[llm]
enabled = false                     # OFF by default. Conscious opt-in.
provider = "local"                  # local-first if enabled

[llm.local]
endpoint = "http://localhost:11434" # Ollama
model = "qwen2.5-coder:7b-instruct"

[telemetry]
enabled = false                     # ALWAYS false. Immutable policy.

Roadmap

• v0.5.x (shipped): Layers 0-5 with obfuscation detectors + batch mode. Available now via pip install nodesafe.
• v0.6 (next): runtime-installation detector (catches nodes that pip-install or git-clone code at runtime, the April 2026 botnet vector) + SARIF output for GitHub Code Scanning.
• v0.7 (M3): Layer 6 anomaly detection (Isolation Forest + autoencoder over the feature extractor) once enough labeled samples have been collected to seed a baseline.
• v0.9 (M3): Layer 7 semantic similarity (CodeBERT embeddings + FAISS) for polymorphic variant matching.
• v1.0: Layer 8 LLM contextual review (local-first via Ollama, cloud opt-in) + first PR to ComfyUI-Manager so scans run before any install by default.
• v1.5: public threat report + consolidated community signature contributions.
• v2+ (Year 2): .nodesafe standard portable to other node-based ecosystems (LangFlow, n8n, Flowise).

Full plan in ARCHITECTURE.md.

Contributing

PRs welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Especially welcome:

• Contributions of new malware signatures — see signatures/README.md
• False positive reports for legitimate nodes
• Missed detection reports — open an issue with the [missed-detection] tag
• Semgrep rules specific to ComfyUI / diffusion patterns

Acknowledgments

Inspired by HuggingFace's safetensors push, Snyk Labs' research on ComfyUI attack vectors, and the unfortunate work of u/roblaughter who discovered LLMVISION at his own cost.

License

Apache 2.0. See LICENSE.

Long-term vision

ComfyUI is the most urgent case, not the only one. The full category of node-based tools with executable plugins (LangFlow, Flowise, Node-RED, n8n, etc.) shares the same structural problem. In the long term, .nodesafe aspires to become a portable manifest artifact that any ecosystem can adopt — analogous to how .safetensors became the standard for ML model weights.

V2-V3 of the project formalizes the standard and works with maintainers of other ecosystems. Today, brutal focus on ComfyUI.