CVE-2024-5452 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) CWE-915 vulnerability in lightning. 2 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for lightning — see the affected versions and patch details below.
RCE via Property/Class Pollution in lightning-ai/pytorch-lightning
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2024-5452.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2024-5452 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,333 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 10–50% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
lightningReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
A remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability exists in the lightning-ai/pytorch-lightning library version 2.2.1 due to improper handling of deserialized user input and mismanagement of dunder attributes by the deepdiff library. The library uses deepdiff.Delta objects to modify application state based on frontend actions. However, it is possible to bypass the intended restrictions on modifying dunder attributes, allowing an attacker to construct a serialized delta that passes the deserializer whitelist and contains dunder attributes. When processed, this can be exploited to access other modules, classes, and instances, leading to arbitrary attribute write and total RCE on any self-hosted pytorch-lightning application in its default configuration, as the delta endpoint is enabled by default.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | lightning | all versions | 2.3.3pip install --upgrade 'lightning==2.3.3' |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for lightning, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update lightning to 2.3.3 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-5452 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2024-5452 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2024-5452. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-5452 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2024-5452 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.