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Critical · 9.8 CVE-2026-68770 EUVD-2026-51650GHSA-jhr6-gm9c-rqjvPYSEC-2026-4164

sentence-transformers Arbitrary Code Execution on Local Model Load Despite trust_remote_code=False

Published Jul 31, 2026 · Updated Nov 8, 2026 · Assigned by VulnCheck

Description

sentence-transformers contains a security control bypass vulnerability that allows attackers to achieve arbitrary code execution by exploiting a logic flaw in the import_module_class helper within sentence_transformers/util/misc.py, where the guard condition includes an 'or os.path.exists(model_name_or_path)' clause that satisfies the trust gate whenever the supplied path exists on the local filesystem, regardless of the trust_remote_code=False argument. Attackers who can control or influence the contents of a model directory on disk can place malicious Python files such as modeling_*.py referenced via modules.json, causing the code to execute at import time when an application loads the model with SentenceTransformer(path, trust_remote_code=False), bypassing the documented security contract and achieving code execution within the loading process.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
Hugging Face sentence-transformers ≤ 5.5.1 —

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

Wolfi

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Wolfi rolling open-webui 0.11.4-r2 —

Affected packages

EcosystemPackageAffectedFixedRecord
PyPI sentence-transformers < 5.6.0 5.6.0 GHSA-jhr6-gm9c-rqjv

References