VDB
KO
HIGH

GHSA-r8g5-cgf2-4m4m

Picklescan missing detection when calling numpy.f2py.crackfortran.getlincoef

Details

### Summary

An unsafe deserialization vulnerability allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code on the host when loading a malicious pickle payload from an untrusted source.

### Details

The `numpy.f2py.crackfortran` module exposes many functions that call `eval` on arbitrary strings of values. This is the case for `getlincoef` and `_eval_length`. This list is probably not exhaustive.

According to https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/security.html#advice-for-using-numpy-on-untrusted-data, the whole `numpy.f2py` should be considered unsafe when loading a pickle.

### PoC

```python from numpy.f2py.crackfortran import getlincoef

class EvilClass: def __reduce__(self): payload = "__import__('os').system('echo \"successful attack\"')" return getlincoef, (payload, []) ```

### Impact

Who is impacted? Any organization or individual relying on `picklescan` to detect malicious pickle files from untrusted sources. What is the impact? Attackers can embed malicious code in pickle file that remains undetected but executes when the pickle file is loaded. Supply Chain Attack: Attackers can distribute infected pickle files across ML models, APIs, or saved Python objects.

### Note

The problem was originally reported to the joblib project, but this was deemed unrelated to joblib itself. However, I checked that `picklescan` was indeed vulnerable.

Are you affected?

Enter the version of the package you're using.

Affected packages

PyPI / picklescan
Introduced in: 0 Fixed in: 0.0.33
Fix pip install --upgrade 'picklescan>=0.0.33'

References