High [CVE-2026-54499] Remote Code Execution via unsafe deserialization in model loaders
This high-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-54499 affecting Red Hat Ceph Storage 9, Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing 3.
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Summary
Stanza is a Stanford NLP Python library for tokenization, sentence segmentation, NER, and parsing of many human languages. Prior to 1.12.2, Stanza model loaders such as stanza.models.common.pretrain.
Pretrain.load() attempt torch.load(..., weights_only=True) but fall back to torch.load(..., weights_only=False) on attacker-controllable pickle. UnpicklingError, allowing a malicious.pt pretrain or model file to execute arbitrary pickle code when a Stanza NLP pipeline loads it.
This issue is fixed in version 1.12.2. However, if this safe load fails due to an attacker-controllable pickle.
UnpicklingError, the loaders fall back to an unsafe deserialization method. This allows a remote attacker to craft a malicious pretrain or model file that, when loaded by a Stanza NLP pipeline, can execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the affected process, leading to potential credential theft or data exfiltration.
An unsafe deserialization vulnerability in the Stanza Python library can lead to remote code execution. A malicious model pretrain file from an untrusted or compromised source can trigger an insecure deserialization fallback during model loading, resulting in arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the affected process.
Red Hat severity: Important — CVSS 7.5 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H). Weakness: CWE-502.
- < 1.12.2
Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 12 days ago·verify at source
Mitigation checklist
- To mitigate this vulnerability, ensure that Stanza model pretrain files are exclusively sourced from trusted repositories and locations. Avoid loading model files from untrusted or unverified sources, as this could lead to the execution of arbitrary code. Implement strict access controls on directories where Stanza models are stored to prevent the introduction of malicious files.
Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 12 days ago·verify at source
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