ONNX Untrusted Model Repository Warnings Suppressed by silent=True in onnx.hub.load() — Silent Supply-Chain Attack

CRITICAL 9.1CVE-2026-28500 · GHSA-hqmj-h5c6-369m · PYSEC-2026-103 · Published 18/03/2026 · updated 15/07/2026

Package	Affected versions	Patched versions
onnx PyPI	`< 1.21.0rc1`	`1.21.0rc1`
onnx linuxfoundation	`≤ 1.20.1`	No fix yet

Description

What's the issue

Passing silent=True to onnx.hub.load() kills all trust warnings and user prompts. This means a model can be downloaded from any unverified GitHub repo with zero user awareness.

if not _verify_repo_ref(repo) and not silent:
    # completely skipped when silent=True
    print("The model repo... is not trusted")
    if input().lower() != "y":
        return None

On top of that, the SHA256 integrity check is useless here — it validates against a manifest that lives in the same repo the attacker controls, so the hash will always match.

Impact

Any pipeline using hub.load() with silent=True and an external repo string is silently loading whatever the repo owner ships. If that model executes arbitrary code on load, the attacker has access to the machine.

Resolved by removing the feature

References

Write-up

NVD description

Open Neural Network Exchange (ONNX) is an open standard for machine learning interoperability. In versions up to and including 1.20.1, a security control bypass exists in onnx.hub.load() due to improper logic in the repository trust verification mechanism. While the function is designed to warn users when loading models from non-official sources, the use of the silent=True parameter completely suppresses all security warnings and confirmation prompts. This vulnerability transforms a standard model-loading function into a vector for Zero-Interaction Supply-Chain Attacks. When chained with file-system vulnerabilities, an attacker can silently exfiltrate sensitive files (SSH keys, cloud credentials) from the victim's machine the moment the model is loaded. As of time of publication, no known patched versions are available.

References

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Package

Affected versions

Patched versions

onnx

PyPI

< 1.21.0rc1

1.21.0rc1

onnx

linuxfoundation

≤ 1.20.1

No fix yet

Description

What's the issue

Passing silent=True to onnx.hub.load() kills all trust warnings and user prompts. This means a model can be downloaded from any unverified GitHub repo with zero user awareness.

if not _verify_repo_ref(repo) and not silent:
    # completely skipped when silent=True
    print("The model repo... is not trusted")
    if input().lower() != "y":
        return None

On top of that, the SHA256 integrity check is useless here — it validates against a manifest that lives in the same repo the attacker controls, so the hash will always match.