Deserialization of Untrusted DataWeakness · CWE-502

CVE-2025-14931

CRITICAL · 10.0 CVSS v3.0 Published 2025-12-23
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
Hugging Face smolagents Remote Python Executor Deserialization of Untrusted Data Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected installations of Hugging Face smolagents. Authentication is not required to exploit this vulnerability. The specific flaw exists within the parsing of pickle data. 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 service account. Was ZDI-CAN-28312.

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 · high confidence

The vulnerability exists in smolagents' Remote Python Executor where user-supplied data is deserialized using Python's pickle module without proper validation. Since pickle can execute arbitrary code during deserialization (a well-known security risk), an unauthenticated remote attacker can inject malicious serialized objects to achieve RCE in the context of the service account.

MitigationReplace pickle deserialization with safe serialization formats (JSON) or implement cryptographic signing/validation before unpickling any untrusted data; apply network-level access controls as defense-in-depth.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

CVSS 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
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Verify smolagents is installed
    Run 'pip show smolagents' or check your project dependencies to confirm smolagents is present in the environment
    Affected if smolagents package is installed in the system or project dependencies
  2. Identify Remote Python Executor usage
    Search codebase and configuration files for imports or usage of 'RemotePythonExecutor' or 'remote_code_execution' modules from smolagents; check if any endpoint or service uses this component
    Affected if Remote Python Executor from smolagents is imported or instantiated in your code or deployed service
  3. Confirm pickle deserialization is in use
    Search code that handles deserialization in the Remote Python Executor context; look for 'pickle.load', 'pickle.loads', 'unpickle', or similar patterns receiving external/input data
    Affected if The Remote Python Executor code deserializes data using pickle on user-supplied or network-received data without validation
  4. Check network exposure of executor
    Review network configuration to determine if the Remote Python Executor listens on accessible network interfaces (0.0.0.0) or is exposed without authentication
    Affected if Remote Python Executor is network-accessible to untrusted clients without authentication or access controls

You are affected if smolagents with Remote Python Executor is running and deserializes untrusted input using pickle on a network-accessible endpoint.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Replace pickle deserialization with safe serialization formats (JSON) or implement cryptographic signing/validation before unpickling any untrusted data; apply network-level access controls as defense-in-depth.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
19.0 hours of engineering $3,380
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Scan for this in your stack

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-14931 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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