CVE-2017-16615: MLAlchemy Unsafe Deserialization Vulnerability

CRITICAL
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-xpm8-98mx-h4c5
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CVSS 9.8
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2017-16615 is a CRITICAL (CVSS 9.8) unsafe deserialization vulnerability (General Security Weakness) affecting MLAlchemy libraries in the PyPI ecosystem. The issue involves unsafe deserialization in mlalchemy. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 0.2.2.

CVE-2017-16615 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2017-16615
GHSA Identifier GHSA-xpm8-98mx-h4c5
Severity CRITICAL
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 9.8
CWE Classification General Security Weakness
Affected Product MLAlchemy
Package Ecosystem PyPI
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 9.8

The security impact metrics below are parsed directly from the CVSS v3.1 vector string (CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).

Attack Vector Network (AV:N)
Attack Complexity Low (AC:L)
Privileges Required None (PR:N)
User Interaction None (UI:N)
Scope Unchanged (S:U)
Confidentiality High (C:H)
Integrity High (I:H)
Availability High (A:H)

How to Fix CVE-2017-16615

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected MLAlchemy dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.

MLAlchemy fixed: 0.2.2 
pip install MLAlchemy>=0.2.2
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release: 

pip show MLAlchemy

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your Python environment is affected by CVE-2017-16615, inspect your installed packages using pip:

pip show MLAlchemy

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of MLAlchemy in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 0.2.2), your application is affected.

Note: The pip show MLAlchemy command checks currently installed packages in your active Python environment.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under General Security Weakness. In MLAlchemy, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.

Source Advisory Statement

An exploitable vulnerability exists in the YAML parsing functionality in the parse_yaml_query method in parser.py in MLAlchemy before 0.2.2. When processing YAML-Based queries for data, a YAML parser can execute arbitrary Python commands resulting in command execution because load is used where safe_load should have been used. An attacker can insert Python into loaded YAML to trigger this vulnerability.

CVE-2017-16615 Affected MLAlchemy Versions

1 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
0.2.2
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
MLAlchemy
pypi/MLAlchemy
PyPI
< 0.2.2
0.2.2

References

NVD — CVE-2017-16615 NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-16615
MLAlchemy Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/thanethomson/MLAlchemy/issues/1
Security Fix Commit FIX COMMIT
https://github.com/thanethomson/MLAlchemy/commit/bc795757febdcce430d89f9d08f75c32d6989d3c
MLAlchemy Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/mlalchemy/PYSEC-2017-19.yaml
MLAlchemy Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/thanethomson/MLAlchemy
joel-malwarebenchmark.github.io/blog/2017/11/08/cve... WEB
https://joel-malwarebenchmark.github.io/blog/2017/11/08/cve-2017-16615-critical-restful-web-applications-vulnerability

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2017-16615?
CVE-2017-16615 is a security vulnerability in MLAlchemy involving Unsafe deserialization in MLAlchemy under General Security Weakness.
Which MLAlchemy versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 0.2.2 across affected packages: MLAlchemy.
What version fixes CVE-2017-16615?
Upgrading to 0.2.2 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is MLAlchemy affected?
Yes, MLAlchemy is affected in releases prior to 0.2.2. Upgrade your dependency to 0.2.2 or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2017-16615?
CVE-2017-16615 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 (CRITICAL) with vector string CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2017-16615?
CVE-2017-16615 is classified under General Security Weakness.
How can I check PyPI dependencies for CVE-2017-16615?
Run the dependency tree command: 'pip show MLAlchemy'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
View Raw JSON 
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-xpm8-98mx-h4c5",
  "modified" : "2024-09-24T20:32:18Z",
  "published" : "2018-07-13T16:01:07Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2017-16615" ],
  "summary" : "Unsafe deserialization in MLAlchemy",
  "details" : "An exploitable vulnerability exists in the YAML parsing functionality in the parse_yaml_query method in parser.py in MLAlchemy before 0.2.2. When processing YAML-Based queries for data, a YAML parser can execute arbitrary Python commands resulting in command execution because load is used where safe_load should have been used. An attacker can insert Python into loaded YAML to trigger this vulnerability.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"
  }, {
    "type" : "CVSS_V4",
    "score" : "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "PyPI",
      "name" : "MLAlchemy"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "0.2.2"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-16615"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/thanethomson/MLAlchemy/issues/1"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/thanethomson/MLAlchemy/commit/bc795757febdcce430d89f9d08f75c32d6989d3c"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/mlalchemy/PYSEC-2017-19.yaml"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/thanethomson/MLAlchemy"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://joel-malwarebenchmark.github.io/blog/2017/11/08/cve-2017-16615-critical-restful-web-applications-vulnerability"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ ],
    "severity" : "CRITICAL",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2020-06-16T22:03:55Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : null
  }
}