ONNX: Arbitrary File Read via ExternalData Hardlink Bypass in ONNX loadGHSA-cmw6-hcpp-c6jp
MEDIUMFix: onnx/onnx@4755f80GHSA-cmw6-hcpp-c6jp is a medium-severity (CVSS 4.7) Path Traversal vulnerability in onnx. A fix is available for onnx — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-cmw6-hcpp-c6jp.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
onnxReal-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
Summary
The issue is in onnx.load — the code checks for symlinks to prevent path traversal, but completely misses hardlinks, which is the problem, since a hardlink looks exactly like a regular file on the filesystem.
The Real Problem
The validator in onnx/checker.cc only calls is_symlink() and never checks the inode or st_nlink, so a hardlink walks right through every security check without any issues.
Impact
Especially dangerous in AI supply chain scenarios like HuggingFace — a single malicious model is enough to silently steal secrets from the victim's machine without them noticing anything.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | onnx | all versions | 1.21.0pip install --upgrade 'onnx==1.21.0' |
Affected Products
onnxlinuxfoundationDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for onnx, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update onnx to 1.21.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-cmw6-hcpp-c6jp is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Resolve every user-supplied path to its canonical form and reject anything that escapes the intended directory, and run the component under an account that has no read or write access outside the directory it legitimately serves.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base or stability.Source: Red Hat security advisory for GHSA-cmw6-hcpp-c6jp (CC BY 4.0)
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-cmw6-hcpp-c6jp in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.