CVE-2026-5241: Policy Bypass in LightGlue Nested Config Resolution in huggingface/transformers

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-5241 is a critical (CVSS 9.6) vulnerability in huggingface huggingface/transformers. EPSS estimates a 0.60% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 48.5% of scored vulnerabilities. 1 public exploit is recorded.

Timeline

1. 03-06-2026
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 01-09-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

A vulnerability in the LightGlue model loading path of huggingface/transformers version 5.2.0 allows an attacker-controlled model repository to execute arbitrary code during model initialization. The issue arises because the `trust_remote_code` parameter, intended to prevent remote code execution, is overridden by untrusted serialized configuration data in a nested code path. Specifically, when loading a LightGlue model using `AutoModel.from_pretrained()` with `trust_remote_code=False`, the `LightGlueConfig` reads the `trust_remote_code` value from the untrusted `config.json` file and propagates it into nested `AutoConfig.from_pretrained()` calls. This results in the execution of attacker-provided Python modules, even when the victim explicitly disables remote code execution. The vulnerability poses a high risk for environments such as API inference servers, research notebooks, CI/CD pipelines, and model evaluation workers, potentially leading to credential theft, lateral movement, or persistence/backdoor deployment.

• CWE-829Inclusion of Functionality from Untrusted Control SphereThe product imports, requires, or includes executable functionality (such as a library) from a source that is outside of the intended control sphere.