CVE-2024-11394
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedHugging Face Transformers Trax Model Deserialization of Untrusted Data Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected installations of Hugging Face Transformers. User interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability in that the target must visit a malicious page or open a malicious file. The specific flaw exists within the handling of model files. The issue results from the lack of proper validation of user-supplied data, which can result in deserialization of untrusted data. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to execute code in the context of the current user. Was ZDI-CAN-25012.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceHugging Face Transformers Trax model loading lacks proper validation of user-supplied data during deserialization, allowing malicious model files to execute arbitrary code in the context of the current user. Exploitation requires user interaction to load a crafted model file.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data< 4.48.0CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check installed Transformers versionRun 'pip show transformers' or 'import transformers; print(transformers.__version__)'Affected if Version is lower than 4.48.0
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Verify if Trax model loading is in useSearch codebase for imports like 'from transformers import TraxForSequenceClassification' or 'TraxModel', and usage of 'from transformers import AutoModel' with Trax-based modelsAffected if Code loads Trax-based models from Hugging Face Transformers
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Inspect model loading code pathsReview code that loads models via AutoModel, from_pretrained, or similar APIs, especially with locally-provided model files or directoriesAffected if Code loads models from user-supplied or untrusted local directories/files
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Check for deserialization of pickle filesSearch for pickle.load operations in model loading code or examine model files for .pkl, .pickle extensions in model directoriesAffected if Models use pickle-based serialization (common in older model formats)
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Audit network exposure of model loadingReview whether model loading functions are exposed via APIs, web services, or user-accessible endpoints where untrusted model files could be suppliedAffected if Users can supply or specify model files/paths via external input
User is affected if running Transformers version below 4.48.0 AND loading models from untrusted or user-supplied sources via vulnerable deserialization paths.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
dbcve · scoped4.48.0
Only load model files from trusted and verified sources; implement model file integrity verification (e.g., checksums, signatures) before deserialization. Monitor for available patches from Hugging Face.
Transformers 4.48.0
- Upgrade the huggingface/transformers library to version 4.48.0 or later by running: pip install --upgrade transformers>=4.48.0
- Verify the upgrade was successful by running: pip show transformers and checking the version number
- If using transformers in a project, ensure any model files are loaded from trusted sources only; avoid loading model files from untrusted or unknown origins
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-11394 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2024-11394 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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