Docker Model Runner container-to-host code execution via MLX-LM model_file importlib loading (Docker Docker Desktop)

CVE-2026-5843
HIGH 8.8

At a glance

Source
NVD
EPSS
EPSS 0.22 % · percentile 13 ()
State
PUBLISHED
Published
Updated
Assigner
Docker
NVD status
Analyzed

Description

The MLX inference backend in Docker Model Runner on macOS uses the MLX-LM library, which unconditionally imports and executes arbitrary Python files from model directories via the model_file configuration field in config.json. When a model's config.json specifies a model_file pointing to a Python file, MLX-LM uses importlib to load and execute it with no trust_remote_code gate or equivalent safety check. The MLX backend runs without sandboxing, resulting in arbitrary code execution on the Docker host as the Docker Desktop user. Any container on the Docker network can trigger this by calling the model-runner.docker.internal API to pull a malicious model from an attacker-controlled OCI registry and request inference.

Weaknesses (CWE)

  • CWE-829 — Inclusion of Functionality from Untrusted Control Sphere

References

Scores

VersionScoreVectorScored by
CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.8CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:HDocker
CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.2CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:HDocker
CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.8CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:XNVD · security@docker.com (Secondary)
CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.2CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:HNVD · security@docker.com (Secondary)
CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.6CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:HNVD · nvd@nist.gov (Primary)

European references

CERT-FR advisories

Affected configurations (NVD CPE)

Affected products

ProductVersions
Docker · Docker Desktopaffected 4.56.0 < 4.71.0

Sources

SourceLicence
CVE List (CVEProject cvelistV5)CVE Program Terms of Use
EPSS (FIRST.org)FIRST — attribution requested
ENISA EUVDENISA — reproduction authorised, source acknowledged
CERT-FR (ANSSI)Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0
NVD (NIST) via fkie-cad/nvd-json-data-feedsPublic domain — this product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD