CVE-2025-71320
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 · uneditedpicklescan before 0.0.33 contains an incomplete deny-list that fails to block pydoc.locate and operator.methodcaller functions, allowing attackers to bypass security checks. Remote attackers can craft malicious pickle files using these unblocked functions to achieve arbitrary code execution when the pickle is deserialized.
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 confidencepicklescan before version 0.0.33 has an incomplete deny-list that fails to block the pydoc.locate and operator.methodcaller functions, allowing attackers to craft malicious pickle files that bypass security checks and achieve arbitrary code execution during deserialization.
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
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/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 if picklescan is installedRun 'pip show picklescan' or 'pip list | grep picklescan' to see if the package is installed in your environmentAffected if picklescan is not installed in your environment (not affected)
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Determine the installed version of picklescanRun 'pip show picklescan' and look for the Version field, or run 'pip freeze | grep picklescan'Affected if The installed version is earlier than 0.0.33 (e.g., 0.0.32, 0.0.31, etc.)
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Inspect the deny-list source codeLocate the picklescan package installation (pip show picklescan shows Location) and examine the deny-list definition file, typically in the scanner or security module, looking for entries containing 'pydoc.locate' and 'operator.methodcaller'Affected if These two functions are NOT present in the deny-list configuration
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Identify if picklescan is used to scan untrusted pickle dataSearch your codebase for imports of picklescan (e.g., 'from picklescan import scanners' or 'import picklescan') and calls to scan functions that process external or untrusted pickle filesAffected if Your application uses picklescan to validate pickle files from untrusted sources and the installed version is below 0.0.33
You are affected if picklescan with version below 0.0.33 is installed and used to scan untrusted pickle files, and the deny-list does not include pydoc.locate and operator.methodcaller.
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 · scopedUpdate picklescan to version 0.0.33 or later to include these functions in the deny-list. Additionally, do not rely solely on picklescan for security; use restricted unpicklers (like RestrictedUnpickler) or avoid pickle for untrusted data entirely.
0.0.33
- Check the current version of picklescan installed in your environment using: pip show picklescan or pip list | grep picklescan
- Upgrade picklescan to version 0.0.33 or later using: pip install picklescan>=0.0.33
- Verify the upgrade was successful by checking the installed version again
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,072.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-71320 — 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-2025-71320 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data