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GHSA-cq46-m9x9-j8w2 — scapy

Fix: secdev/scapy@13621d1

GHSA-cq46-m9x9-j8w2 is a remote code execution vulnerability in scapy. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.

Scapy Session Loading Vulnerable to Arbitrary Code Execution via Untrusted Pickle Deserialization

Published
Oct 22, 2025
Updated
Oct 23, 2025
Affected
1 pkg
Patched
See advisory
Exploits
None indexed
Exploitation data as of Oct 23, 2025 · OSV.dev, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Real-World Exposure

1 pkg affected
🐍scapy

Real-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

An unsafe deserialization vulnerability in Scapy <v2.7.0 allows attackers to execute arbitrary code when a malicious session file is locally loaded via the -s option. This requires convincing a user to manually load a malicious session file.

Details

Scapy’s interactive shell supports session loading using gzip-compressed pickle files:

./run_scapy -s <session_file.pkl.gz>

Internally, this triggers:

# main.py
SESSION = pickle.load(gzip.open(session_name, "rb"))

Since no validation or restriction is performed on the deserialized object, any code embedded via __reduce__() will be executed immediately. This makes it trivial for an attacker to drop a malicious .pkl.gz in a shared folder and have it executed by unsuspecting users.

The vulnerability exists in the load_session function, which deserializes data using pickle.load() on .pkl.gz files provided via the -s CLI flag or programmatically through conf.session.

Affected lines in source code: https://github.com/secdev/scapy/blob/master/scapy/main.py#L569-L572

try:
    s = pickle.load(gzip.open(fname, "rb"))
except IOError:
    try:
        s = pickle.load(open(fname, "rb"))

Impact

This is a classic deserialization vulnerability which leads to Code Execution (CE) when untrusted data is deserialized.

Any user who can trick another user into loading a crafted .pkl.gz session file (e.g. via -s option) can execute arbitrary Python code.

  • Vulnerability type: Insecure deserialization (Python pickle)
  • CWE: CWE-502: Deserialization of Untrusted Data
  • CVSS v4.0 Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
  • CVSS Score: 5.4 (Medium)
  • Impact: Arbitrary Code Execution
  • Attack vector: Local or supply chain (malicious .pkl.gz)
  • Affected users: Any user who loads session files (even interactively)
  • Affected version: Scapy v2.6.1

Mitigations

  • Do not use 'sessions' (the -s option when launching Scapy).
  • Use the Scapy 2.7.0+ where the session mechanism has been removed.

Affected Packages

1 total
EcosystemPackageVulnerable rangeFix
🐍PyPIscapyall versionsNo fix

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

  1. Detect

    Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for scapy, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

  2. Remediation status

    No patched version of scapy has shipped for GHSA-cq46-m9x9-j8w2 yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.

  3. Mitigate without a patch

    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.

  4. How O3 protects you

    O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like GHSA-cq46-m9x9-j8w2 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.

Tailored to GHSA-cq46-m9x9-j8w2. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

### Summary An unsafe deserialization vulnerability in Scapy <v2.7.0 allows attackers to execute arbitrary code **when a malicious session file is locally loaded via the `-s` option**. This requires convincing a user to manually load a malicious session file. --- ### Details Scapy’s interactive shell supports session loading using gzip-compressed pickle files: ```bash ./run_scapy -s <session_file.pkl.gz> ``` Internally, this triggers: ```python # main.py SESSION = pickle.load(gzip.open(session_name, "rb")) ``` Since no validation or restriction is performed on the deserialized object,
O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

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GHSA-cq46-m9x9-j8w2: scapy RCE | O3 Security