CVE-2019-6446
Publication date 16 January 2019
Last updated 4 August 2025
Ubuntu priority
Description
An issue was discovered in NumPy before 1.16.3. It uses the pickle Python module unsafely, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted serialized object, as demonstrated by a numpy.load call. NOTE: third parties dispute this issue because it is a behavior that might have legitimate applications in (for example) loading serialized Python object arrays from trusted and authenticated sources.
Status
| Package | Ubuntu Release | Status |
|---|---|---|
| python-numpy | 24.04 LTS noble | Not in release |
| 22.04 LTS jammy | Not in release | |
| 20.04 LTS focal |
Not affected
|
|
| 18.04 LTS bionic |
Not affected
|
|
| 16.04 LTS xenial |
Not affected
|
|
| 14.04 LTS trusty | Not in release |
Notes
mdeslaur
The following commit added an option that will allow disabling the use of pickles in load and save operations: https://github.com/numpy/numpy/commit/a2bd3a7eabfe053d6d16a2130fdcad9e5211f6bb That commit is included in xenial+ Marking this as low priority due to the limited reverse-depends in main, and the fact that it may not be possible to switch the default to false in stable releases without breaking use-cases.
Severity score breakdown
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Base score |
9.8 · Critical
|
| Attack vector | Network |
| Attack complexity | Low |
| Privileges required | None |
| User interaction | None |
| Scope | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | High |
| Integrity impact | High |
| Availability impact | High |
| Vector | CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |