PyTorch Vulnerable to Remote Code Execution via Untrusted Checkpoint Files

Summary

A vulnerability in PyTorch's weights_only unpickler allows an attacker to craft a malicious checkpoint file (.pth) that, when loaded with torch.load(..., weights_only=True), can corrupt memory and potentially lead to arbitrary code execution.

Vulnerability Details

The weights_only=True unpickler failed to properly validate pickle opcodes and storage metadata, allowing:

1. Heap memory corruption via SETITEM/SETITEMS opcodes applied to non-dictionary types

2. Storage size mismatch between declared element count and actual data in the archive

Impact

An attacker who can convince a user to load a malicious checkpoint file may achieve arbitrary code execution in the context of the victim's process.

Credit

Ji'an Zhou