CVE-2026-1260: Google Sentencepiece heap overflow via malicious model file

CVE-2026-1260 · Severity: high · CVSS 7.8 · Published 2026-01-22

Sentencepiece, a widely used text processing library for machine learning models, contains a security vulnerability that can be triggered by loading a specially crafted, malicious model file. If an application or user processes such a file, it could lead to a complete system compromise, unauthorized data access, or service crashes. This issue primarily affects environments where users might download and use untrusted machine learning models from external sources.

Technologies: Red Hat AI Inference Server. Vendors: Google, PyPI, Red Hat.

Quick answers

Is CVE-2026-1260 exploited in the wild?
No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-1260 being exploited in the wild.
How severe is CVE-2026-1260?
High severity, with a CVSS score of 7.8, published 22 January 2026.
Which products and versions are affected?
Google Sentencepiece < 0.2.1; sentencepiece (PyPI) ECOSYSTEM:introduced=0,fixed=0.2.1; Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.
Is there a fix for CVE-2026-1260?
Yes. sentencepiece (PyPI): upgrade to 0.2.1 or later. Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.
How is CVE-2026-1260 attacked?
It is attacked with local access, in a software library.
Am I affected by CVE-2026-1260?
Check whether you run Google Sentencepiece, sentencepiece (PyPI) or Red Hat AI Inference Server at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.

How to fix

  • sentencepiece (PyPI): upgrade to 0.2.1 or later
    pip install "sentencepiece>=0.2.1"

Technical details

A heap buffer overflow vulnerability exists in Google Sentencepiece before version 0.2.1. The flaw is triggered during the loading of a vulnerable model file that contains an invalid precompiled normalization model, which is not typically generated during standard training procedures. An attacker can exploit this by providing a malicious model file to an application using the library. Successful exploitation requires the victim to load the crafted file (User Interaction) and can result in arbitrary code execution or a denial-of-service (DoS) condition. The issue has been addressed in Sentencepiece version 0.2.1, and Red Hat has released updated images for OpenShift AI to mitigate the risk.

Affected products

  • Google Sentencepiece < 0.2.1
  • Red Hat Red Hat OpenShift AI 2.25, 3.3
  • Red Hat Red Hat AI Inference Server 3

Identifiers

  • CVE-2026-1260
  • GHSA-38vq-g6vr-w8wf
  • PYSEC-2026-1909

Timeline

  • 2026-01-22: disclosed
  • 2026-01-22: advisory
  • 2026-03-04: patched: Red Hat released security advisories RHSA-2026:3713 and RHSA-2026:3782

References

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