wallet: Wallet name validation does not reject filesystem-invalid/reserved/directory characters #35907

issue vicjuma opened this issue on August 5, 2026

vicjuma commented at 7:38 PM on August 5, 2026: contributor

Problem

Wallet names that eventually may act as directory names have a somewhat lenient validation ("", "..", "./"). This may seem to be a minor issue, arguably, cause it somehow works out, but it may probably lead to inconsistencies (loosely speaking) when a reserved character is mistakenly used. It may really help to add a pattern check against reserved/invalid directory names when creating a wallet just to prevent such situations. I created a PR for only a single pattern #35768 (all spaces). But seems there are more such patterns currently being accepted.

Demonstrations

Nested wallets

These are wallet names that contain a /

ratedg@0xratedg:~/projects/contributions/bitcoin/build/bin$ ./bitcoin-cli createwallet "tests/wallets/wallet1"
{
  "name": "tests/wallets/wallet1"
}
ratedg@0xratedg:~/projects/contributions/bitcoin/build/bin$ tree ~/.bitcoin/regtest/wallets/
/home/ratedg/.bitcoin/regtest/wallets/
└── tests
    └── wallets
        └── wallet1
            ├── wallet.dat
            └── wallet.dat-journal

4 directories, 2 files
ratedg@0xratedg:~/projects/contributions/bitcoin/build/bin$

Empty wallet names

These are wallets with no other characters but spaces

ratedg@0xratedg:~/projects/contributions/bitcoin/build/bin$ ./bitcoin-cli createwallet " " &&  ./bitcoin-cli createwallet "  " && ./bitcoin-cli createwallet "   "
{
  "name": " "
}
{
  "name": "  "
}
{
  "name": "   "
}
ratedg@0xratedg:~/projects/contributions/bitcoin/build/bin$ tree ~/.bitcoin/regtest/wallets/
/home/ratedg/.bitcoin/regtest/wallets/
├──  
│   ├── wallet.dat
│   └── wallet.dat-journal
├──   
│   ├── wallet.dat
│   └── wallet.dat-journal
└──    
    ├── wallet.dat
    └── wallet.dat-journal

4 directories, 6 files

UI display

Hidden folder names

These are wallet names beginning with a .

ratedg@0xratedg:~/projects/contributions/bitcoin/build/bin$ ./bitcoin-cli createwallet ".testwallet"
{
  "name": ".testwallet"
}
ratedg@0xratedg:~/projects/contributions/bitcoin/build/bin$ tree ~/.bitcoin/regtest/wallets/
/home/ratedg/.bitcoin/regtest/wallets/

0 directories, 0 files
ratedg@0xratedg:~/projects/contributions/bitcoin/build/bin$ tree -a ~/.bitcoin/regtest/wallets/
/home/ratedg/.bitcoin/regtest/wallets/
└── .testwallet
    ├── wallet.dat
    └── wallet.dat-journal

2 directories, 2 files
ratedg@0xratedg:~/projects/contributions/bitcoin/build/bin$

Windows path separator

These are wallet names that contain a \

ratedg@0xratedg:~/projects/contributions/bitcoin/build/bin$ ./bitcoin-cli createwallet "\\\\"
{
  "name": "\\\\"
}
ratedg@0xratedg:~/projects/contributions/bitcoin/build/bin$ tree ~/.bitcoin/regtest/wallets/
/home/ratedg/.bitcoin/regtest/wallets/
└── \\
    ├── wallet.dat
    └── wallet.dat-journal

2 directories, 2 files
ratedg@0xratedg:~/projects/contributions/bitcoin/build/bin$

Probably this change may not be urgent, but it might be necessary

Proposed solution

Validate wallet names against an agreed pattern. Following maflcko's comment, only the create path should be validated for now.

Conclusion

If this is expected behavior or not considered worth addressing, please feel free to close this issue. I wanted to raise the observation in case it is useful or was previously overlooked.

willcl-ark added the label Wallet on Aug 13, 2026

Contributors

vicjuma

Labels

Wallet

Linked (view graph)

#35768 wallet: Reject whitespace-only wallet names