Stanza: Remote Code Execution via Unsafe Pickle Deserialization in Model Loaders
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Attack complexity
- High
- Impact type
- Code execution
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · High · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 2 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA, GitHub and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-502.
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.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- Poc
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Total
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| stanfordnlp | stanza | before 1.12.2 | 1.12.2 | Patch available | CNA |
| — | stanza (PyPI) | before 1.12.2 | 1.12.2 | Patch available | GHSA-v5jw-96jm-7h2c |
- stanza Vendorstanfordnlp Affected before 1.12.2 Fixed in 1.12.2 Patch available CNA
- stanza (PyPI) Vendor— Affected before 1.12.2 Fixed in 1.12.2 Patch available GHSA-v5jw-96jm-7h2c
CPE configurations NVD · 1
| CPE | Versions | Role | Vendor |
|---|---|---|---|
| cpe:2.3:a:stanford:stanza:*:*:*:*:*:python:*:* | before 1.12.2 | Vulnerable | stanfordnlp |
- cpe:2.3:a:stanford:stanza:*:*:*:*:*:python:*:* Versions before 1.12.2 Vulnerable ·stanfordnlp
Remediation
- Fix · CNA stanza (stanfordnlp) Fixed in 1.12.2
- Fix · GHSA-v5jw-96jm-7h2c stanza (PyPI) Fixed in 1.12.2 Advisory →
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Important. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Ceph Storage 9 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing 3 | Affected | No fix planned: Will not fix |
Not affected: 3 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
- Red Hat Hardened Images
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-54499
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-v5jw-96jm-7h2c
References
Patch 2
Sources
- CVE-2026-54499 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-54499 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-v5jw-96jm-7h2c · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-54499 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences