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Deserialization of Untrusted DataWeakness · CWE-502

CVE-2026-31235

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-05-12
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
The imgaug library thru 0.4.0 contains an insecure deserialization vulnerability in its BackgroundAugmenter class within the multicore.py module. The class uses Python's pickle module to deserialize data received via a multiprocessing queue in the _augment_images_worker() method without any safety checks. An attacker who can influence the data placed into this queue (e.g., through social engineering, malicious input scripts, or a compromised shared queue) can provide a malicious pickle payload. When deserialized, this payload can execute arbitrary code in the context of the worker process, leading to remote or local code execution depending on the deployment scenario.

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 imgaug library through version 0.4.0 contains an insecure deserialization vulnerability in the BackgroundAugmenter class within multicore.py. The _augment_images_worker() method deserializes data from a multiprocessing queue using Python's pickle module without any validation or safety checks, allowing attackers to inject malicious pickle payloads that execute arbitrary code.

MitigationReplace pickle deserialization with a safer format like JSON, or implement cryptographic signing/validation of queue data before deserialization to prevent malicious payload injection.

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 checks

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

  1. Check installed imgaug version
    Run: pip show imgaug or pip list | grep imgaug to see the installed version number
    Affected if Version is 0.4.0 or lower (including any 0.x.x release prior to 0.4.0)
  2. Verify BackgroundAugmenter import usage
    Search codebase for: 'from imgaug.multicore import BackgroundAugmenter' or 'import imgaug; imgaug.multicore.BackgroundAugmenter'
    Affected if BackgroundAugmenter class is imported or instantiated in the codebase
  3. Confirm multiprocessing queue is used with imgaug
    Inspect code where BackgroundAugmenter is instantiated and check if multiprocessing.Queue or multiprocessing.Manager().Queue() is passed to it
    Affected if A multiprocessing queue object is provided as input to BackgroundAugmenter
  4. Check if multicore.py contains pickle deserialization
    Locate the imgaug installation (typically in site-packages/imgaug/) and inspect multicore.py for 'pickle.loads' calls within _augment_images_worker method
    Affected if The multicore.py file contains unpickled data from queue without validation (pickle.loads(queue.get()))

You are affected if imgaug version 0.4.0 or lower is installed AND your code uses BackgroundAugmenter with a multiprocessing queue, allowing untrusted pickle deserialization.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Replace pickle deserialization with a safer format like JSON, or implement cryptographic signing/validation of queue data before deserialization to prevent malicious payload injection.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

imgaug 0.4.1 or latest stable release

  1. 1. Identify the current installed version of imgaug by running: pip show imgaug or pip list | grep imgaug
  2. 2. Upgrade imgaug to the latest available version: pip install --upgrade imgaug
  3. 3. Verify the new version is installed: pip show imgaug
  4. 4. Review the multicore.py module in the upgraded package to confirm pickle usage has been replaced with a safer deserialization method like json or msgpack, or that validation has been added
  5. 5. If the vulnerability persists after upgrade, implement application-level mitigations such as: validating input sources to the multiprocessing queue, using restricted unpickling with a custom Unpickler class, or switching to safer serialization formats like JSON for inter-process communication
Caveat No major breaking changes expected; imgaug 0.4.1 is a patch release

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

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,490
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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

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Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-31235 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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