CVE-2026-68770
CriticalCVSS 9.8Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk41th percentile - higher than 41% of all known CVEs
Summary
sentence-transformers contains a security control bypass vulnerability in the import_module_class helper in util/misc.py. The condition 'or os.path.exists(model_name_or_path)' allows code execution from Python files placed in a local model directory even when trust_remote_code=False. An attacker who can influence the model directory contents can place malicious files that execute when the model is loaded.
Risk Assessment
The organization is at risk of arbitrary code execution when loading models with SentenceTransformer if an attacker can control the model directory contents. This could lead to application compromise or data leakage.
Recommendation
Update the sentence-transformers library to a version that fixes this vulnerability. Until then, avoid loading models from untrusted locations and verify model directory contents.
Original NVD description (English source)
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.