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Arbitrary code execution decoding QPY format versions < 13

Critical
mtreinish published GHSA-6m2c-76ff-6vrf Mar 14, 2025

Package

pip qiskit (pip)

Affected versions

<=1.4.1, 2.0.0rc1

Patched versions

1.4.2, 2.0.0rc2
pip qiskit-terra (pip)
>=0.18.0
Not receiving security updates

Description

Impact

A maliciously crafted QPY file can potentially execute arbitrary-code embedded in the payload without privilege escalation when deserializing QPY formats < 13. A python process calling Qiskit's qiskit.qpy.load() function could potentially execute any arbitrary Python code embedded in the correct place in the binary file as part of a specially constructed payload.

Patches

Fixed in Qiskit 1.4.2 and in Qiskit 2.0.0rc2

Severity

Critical

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVE ID

CVE-2025-2000

Weaknesses

Deserialization of Untrusted Data

The product deserializes untrusted data without sufficiently verifying that the resulting data will be valid. Learn more on MITRE.