CVE-2026-68770 PUBLISHED

sentence-transformers Arbitrary Code Execution on Local Model Load Despite trust_remote_code=False

Assigner: VulnCheck
Reserved: 31.07.2026 Published: 31.07.2026 Updated: 31.07.2026

sentence-transformers contains a security control bypass vulnerability that allows attackers to achieve arbitrary code execution by exploiting a logic flaw in the import_module_class helper within sentence_transformers/util/misc.py, where the guard condition includes an 'or os.path.exists(model_name_or_path)' clause that satisfies the trust gate whenever the supplied path exists on the local filesystem, regardless of the trust_remote_code=False argument. Attackers who can control or influence the contents of a model directory on disk can place malicious Python files such as modeling_*.py referenced via modules.json, causing the code to execute at import time when an application loads the model with SentenceTransformer(path, trust_remote_code=False), bypassing the documented security contract and achieving code execution within the loading process.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: 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
CVSS Score: 9.3

Product Status

Vendor Hugging Face
Product sentence-transformers
Versions Default: affected
  • affected from 0 to 5.5.1 (incl.)

Credits

  • Bofei Chen reporter

References

Problem Types

  • Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection') CWE