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KtransformersApplication · Kvcache Ai

CVE-2026-26210

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-04-23
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 0.5.3 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Public exploit Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

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
KTransformers through 0.5.3 contains an unsafe deserialization vulnerability in the balance_serve backend mode where the scheduler RPC server binds a ZMQ ROUTER socket to all interfaces with no authentication and deserializes incoming messages using pickle.loads() without validation. Attackers can send a crafted pickle payload to the exposed ZMQ socket to execute arbitrary code on the server with the privileges of the ktransformers process.

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

KTransformers 0.5.3 and earlier exposes a ZMQ ROUTER socket bound to all network interfaces without authentication in balance_serve mode. The scheduler RPC server deserializes incoming messages using pickle.loads() without validation, allowing attackers to send malicious pickle payloads for arbitrary code execution.

MitigationRestrict ZMQ socket binding to localhost or implement strong authentication, and replace pickle.loads() with a safe deserialization method (e.g., JSON, msgpack, or signed/validated pickle payloads).

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
KtransformersApplication
Affected:<= 0.5.3

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 checks

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

  1. Identify KTransformers installation and version
    Run 'pip show ktransformers' or check the installed package version via package manager. Also check if there's a version file in the installation directory.
    Affected if Installed version is 0.5.3 or lower, or version cannot be determined but KTransformers is present.
  2. Locate balance_serve mode configuration
    Search configuration files, startup scripts, or command-line arguments for 'balance_serve' or 'balance' mode. Check YAML/JSON config files and any launcher scripts in the KTransformers deployment.
    Affected if balance_serve mode is enabled or configured in the environment.
  3. Inspect ZMQ server binding configuration
    Examine the scheduler RPC server configuration or source code to find the ZMQ ROUTER socket bind address. Look for 'bind("tcp://*:port")' or similar patterns versus 'bind("tcp://localhost:port")'.
    Affected if The ZMQ socket is bound to '0.0.0.0' or '*' (all interfaces) rather than 'localhost' or '127.0.0.1'.
  4. Verify network accessibility of the RPC port
    Check if the ZMQ scheduler port is listening on all interfaces (0.0.0.0) using 'netstat -tlnp' or 'ss -tlnp'. Confirm the process is reachable from external hosts if the host has external network interfaces.
    Affected if The scheduler RPC port is listening on a non-localhost address and is reachable from the network.

If KTransformers 0.5.3 or earlier is installed with balance_serve mode enabled and the ZMQ scheduler socket is bound to all network interfaces (0.0.0.0), the environment is affected by this vulnerability.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 0.5.3
Vendor patch github.com →
Interim mitigation

Restrict ZMQ socket binding to localhost or implement strong authentication, and replace pickle.loads() with a safe deserialization method (e.g., JSON, msgpack, or signed/validated pickle payloads).

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

A version greater than 0.5.3 (check GitHub releases for the fixed release)

  1. 1. Review the security fix in PR #1944 at https://github.com/kvcache-ai/ktransformers/pull/1944 to understand the changes
  2. 2. If a new release version (greater than 0.5.3) containing the fix is available, upgrade to that version
  3. 3. If no new release is available, apply the patch from PR #1944 by pulling the changes and rebuilding ktransformers
  4. 4. After applying the fix, verify that the ZMQ socket binding is no longer exposed to all interfaces without authentication
  5. 5. Restart the ktransformers service to load the patched code

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Ktransformers Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation6.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
28.0 hours of engineering $4,980
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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-2026-26210 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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