fix(api): require at least one alphanumeric char in workspace name

apps/api/plane/app/serializers/workspace.py

@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@
 from plane.utils.content_validator import (
     validate_html_content,
     validate_binary_data,
+    has_alphanumeric,
 )
 
 # Django imports
@@ -48,6 +49,13 @@ def validate_name(self, value):
         # Check if the name contains a URL
         if contains_url(value):
             raise serializers.ValidationError("Name must not contain URLs")
+        # Reject symbol-only names like "-_________-" that have no letter or
+        # digit. Mirrors the frontend HAS_ALPHANUMERIC_REGEX check so the rule
+        # cannot be bypassed via a direct API call.
+        if not has_alphanumeric(value):
+            raise serializers.ValidationError(
+                "Name must contain at least one letter or number"
+            )
         return value
 
     def validate_slug(self, value):

apps/api/plane/license/api/serializers/workspace.py

@@ -10,6 +10,8 @@
 from .user import UserLiteSerializer
 from plane.db.models import Workspace
 from plane.utils.constants import RESTRICTED_WORKSPACE_SLUGS
+from plane.utils.content_validator import has_alphanumeric
+from plane.utils.url import contains_url
 
 
 class WorkspaceSerializer(BaseSerializer):
@@ -18,6 +20,20 @@ class WorkspaceSerializer(BaseSerializer):
     total_projects = serializers.IntegerField(read_only=True)
     total_members = serializers.IntegerField(read_only=True)
 
+    def validate_name(self, value):
+        # Check if the name contains a URL (kept consistent with the app-level
+        # WorkSpaceSerializer so both workspace-create paths validate alike).
+        if contains_url(value):
+            raise serializers.ValidationError("Name must not contain URLs")
+        # Reject symbol-only names like "-_________-" that have no letter or
+        # digit. Mirrors the frontend HAS_ALPHANUMERIC_REGEX check so the rule
+        # cannot be bypassed via a direct API call.
+        if not has_alphanumeric(value):
+            raise serializers.ValidationError(
+                "Name must contain at least one letter or number"
+            )
+        return value
+
     def validate_slug(self, value):
         # Check if the slug is restricted
         if value in RESTRICTED_WORKSPACE_SLUGS:

apps/api/plane/tests/unit/serializers/test_workspace.py

@@ -5,9 +5,34 @@
 import pytest
 from uuid import uuid4
 
+from rest_framework import serializers
+
 from plane.api.serializers import WorkspaceLiteSerializer
+from plane.app.serializers import WorkSpaceSerializer
+from plane.license.api.serializers import WorkspaceSerializer as InstanceWorkspaceSerializer
 from plane.db.models import Workspace, User
 
+# Names with no letter or digit — must be rejected (issue #9255)
+SYMBOL_ONLY_NAMES = ["-_________-", "---", "___", "- - -", "   ", "  -_ "]
+
+# Names containing at least one letter or digit — must be accepted, including
+# international scripts, so the rule does not regress non-Latin workspace names
+VALID_NAMES = [
+    "Acme Corp",
+    "Acme_Corp-123",
+    "123",
+    "a",
+    "R&D",
+    "José",
+    "Müller GmbH",
+    "日本語",
+    "株式会社",
+    "محمد",
+]
+
+# Names embedding a URL — must be rejected on both create paths
+URL_NAMES = ["https://evil.com", "www.example.com", "example.com"]
+
 
 @pytest.mark.unit
 class TestWorkspaceLiteSerializer:
@@ -52,3 +77,53 @@ def test_workspace_lite_serializer_read_only(self, db):
         updated_workspace = serializer.save()
         assert updated_workspace.name == "Test Workspace"
         assert updated_workspace.slug == "test-workspace"
+
+
+@pytest.mark.unit
+class TestWorkSpaceSerializerNameValidation:
+    """validate_name must reject symbol-only workspace names (issue #9255).
+
+    Frontend validation is bypassable via a direct API call, so the rule is
+    enforced server-side on both the create and rename (partial_update) paths,
+    which share this serializer's field-level validation.
+    """
+
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize("name", SYMBOL_ONLY_NAMES)
+    def test_rejects_symbol_only_names(self, name):
+        serializer = WorkSpaceSerializer()
+        with pytest.raises(serializers.ValidationError):
+            serializer.validate_name(name)
+
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize("name", VALID_NAMES)
+    def test_accepts_names_with_alphanumeric(self, name):
+        serializer = WorkSpaceSerializer()
+        assert serializer.validate_name(name) == name
+
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize("name", URL_NAMES)
+    def test_rejects_names_containing_urls(self, name):
+        serializer = WorkSpaceSerializer()
+        with pytest.raises(serializers.ValidationError):
+            serializer.validate_name(name)
+
+
+@pytest.mark.unit
+class TestInstanceWorkspaceSerializerNameValidation:
+    """The instance/license workspace create path must enforce the same rules
+    as the app serializer (symbol-only rejection AND URL rejection)."""
+
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize("name", SYMBOL_ONLY_NAMES)
+    def test_rejects_symbol_only_names(self, name):
+        serializer = InstanceWorkspaceSerializer()
+        with pytest.raises(serializers.ValidationError):
+            serializer.validate_name(name)
+
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize("name", VALID_NAMES)
+    def test_accepts_names_with_alphanumeric(self, name):
+        serializer = InstanceWorkspaceSerializer()
+        assert serializer.validate_name(name) == name
+
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize("name", URL_NAMES)
+    def test_rejects_names_containing_urls(self, name):
+        serializer = InstanceWorkspaceSerializer()
+        with pytest.raises(serializers.ValidationError):
+            serializer.validate_name(name)

apps/api/plane/utils/content_validator.py

@@ -241,3 +241,21 @@ def validate_html_content(html_content: str):
     except Exception as e:
         log_exception(e)
         return False, "Failed to sanitize HTML", None
+
+
+def has_alphanumeric(value):
+    """
+    Check whether a string contains at least one alphanumeric character.
+
+    `str.isalnum()` is Unicode-aware, so letters and digits from any script
+    (Latin, CJK, Arabic, Cyrillic, etc.) all count. This mirrors the frontend
+    HAS_ALPHANUMERIC_REGEX (/[\\p{L}\\p{N}]/u) check and is used to reject
+    symbol-only names such as "-_________-".
+
+    Args:
+        value (str): The string to check.
+
+    Returns:
+        bool: True if the value contains at least one letter or digit.
+    """
+    return any(char.isalnum() for char in (value or ""))