labbench Deserialization of Untrusted Data Vulnerability

Executive Summary

This vulnerability affects the labbench Python package before version 0.46.1. It involves a deserialization of untrusted data issue where the read() and read_relational() functions automatically pass files with .p or .pickle extensions to pandas.read_pickle without proper validation. Attackers can exploit this by providing a crafted file, leading to arbitrary code execution when a user loads it.

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Detection Guidance

Check for files with .p or .pickle extensions in directories accessed by labbench. Use commands like 'find / -name "*.p" -o -name "*.pickle" 2>/dev/null' to locate such files. Verify if labbench version is below 0.46.1 with 'pip show labbench' or 'conda list labbench'.

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Impact Analysis

If you use labbench versions before 0.46.1, an attacker could trick you into loading a malicious .p or .pickle file. This could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code on your system, potentially leading to data theft, system compromise, or further network intrusions.

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Mitigation Strategies

Upgrade labbench to version 0.46.1 or later. Set the environment variable LABBENCH_AUTOLOAD_PICKLE to a non-disabling value to restrict unsafe unpickling. Avoid loading untrusted .p or .pickle files.

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