Deserialization of Untrusted DataWeakness · CWE-502

CVE-2025-33213

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-12-09
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
95/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges

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
NVIDIA Merlin Transformers4Rec for Linux contains a vulnerability in the Trainer component, where a user could cause a deserialization issue. A successful exploit of this vulnerability might lead to code execution, denial of service, information disclosure, and data tampering.

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 confidence

NVIDIA Merlin Transformers4Rec Trainer component contains a deserialization vulnerability where malicious or crafted serialized data processed by the Trainer could trigger unsafe deserialization, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution, denial of service, information disclosure, or data tampering.

MitigationApply vendor-provided patches when available; until then, restrict access to the Trainer component, validate all input data before deserialization, and network-segment systems running Transformers4Rec.

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
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 checks

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

  1. Verify Transformers4Rec is installed
    Run 'pip show transformers4rec' or check for the package in your Python environment
    Affected if The package is not installed or cannot be found, the system is not affected by this specific vulnerability
  2. Check the installed version
    Run 'pip show transformers4rec' and note the Version field, then compare against NVIDIA's published affected version list for CVE-2025-33213
    Affected if The installed version falls within the affected version range published by NVIDIA for this CVE
  3. Confirm Trainer component is in use
    Search your codebase for imports like 'from transformers4rec import trainer' or 'Trainer' usage, and check if training pipelines use the Transformers4Rec Trainer class
    Affected if The Trainer component from Transformers4Rec is actively used in your environment
  4. Inspect deserialization settings
    Examine configuration files and code for pickle, joblib, or similar deserialization operations within Trainer workflows; look for model loading or data pipeline configurations that process serialized objects
    Affected if The Trainer is configured to load or deserialize pickled/serialized data from untrusted sources or without validation
  5. Check input validation in data pipelines
    Review data preprocessing scripts that feed into Trainer for any validation applied to serialized input data before deserialization
    Affected if No input validation is performed on serialized data before it is processed by the Trainer

A system is likely affected if NVIDIA Merlin Transformers4Rec with a vulnerable version is installed and the Trainer component processes serialized data without input validation.

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

Apply vendor-provided patches when available; until then, restrict access to the Trainer component, validate all input data before deserialization, and network-segment systems running Transformers4Rec.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
22.0 hours of engineering $3,860
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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-2025-33213 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
  • 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data