GHSA-gq3w-7jj3-x7gr is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) CWE-1393 vulnerability in mlflow. A fix is available for mlflow — see the affected versions and patch details below.
MLflow Use of Default Password Authentication Bypass Vulnerability
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- 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.
- 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-gq3w-7jj3-x7gr.
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
GHSA-gq3w-7jj3-x7gr 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 378,567 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
mlflowReal-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
MLflow Use of Default Password Authentication Bypass Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows remote attackers to bypass authentication on affected installations of MLflow. Authentication is not required to exploit this vulnerability.
The specific flaw exists within the basic_auth.ini file. The file contains hard-coded default credentials. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to bypass authentication and execute arbitrary code in the context of the administrator. Was ZDI-CAN-28256.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | mlflow | all versions | 3.8.0rc0pip install --upgrade 'mlflow==3.8.0rc0' |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for mlflow, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update mlflow to 3.8.0rc0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-gq3w-7jj3-x7gr 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 GHSA-gq3w-7jj3-x7gr can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-gq3w-7jj3-x7gr. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-gq3w-7jj3-x7gr in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-gq3w-7jj3-x7gr across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.