CVE-2017-16615

critical

Description

An exploitable vulnerability exists in the YAML parsing functionality in the parse_yaml_query method in parser.py in MLAlchemy before 0.2.2. When processing YAML-Based queries for data, a YAML parser can execute arbitrary Python commands resulting in command execution because load is used where safe_load should have been used. An attacker can insert Python into loaded YAML to trigger this vulnerability.

References

https://joel-malwarebenchmark.github.io/blog/2017/11/08/cve-2017-16615-critical-restful-web-applications-vulnerability/

https://github.com/thanethomson/MLAlchemy/issues/1

https://github.com/thanethomson/MLAlchemy/commit/bc795757febdcce430d89f9d08f75c32d6989d3c

Details

Source: Mitre, NVD

Published: 2017-11-08

Updated: 2026-06-17

Risk Information

CVSS v2

Base Score: 7.5

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Severity: High

CVSS v3

Base Score: 9.8

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Severity: Critical

CVSS v4

Base Score: 9.3

Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Severity: Critical

EPSS

EPSS: 0.00944