---
id: CVE-2026-14535
title: >-
  In Trail of Bits fickling versions up to and including 0.1.11, the
  UnsafeImportsML analysis pass unconditionally calls
  AnalysisContext.shorten_code(node) on every import node it inspects,
  regardless of whether the import is flagged as un…
summary: >-
  In Trail of Bits fickling versions up to and including 0.1.11, the
  UnsafeImportsML analysis pass unconditionally calls
  AnalysisContext.shorten_code(node) on every import node it inspects,
  regardless of whether the import is flagged as un…
severity: high
cvss: 8.8
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H'
cwe:
  - CWE-693
published: '2026-07-04'
updated: '2026-07-04'
source: NVD
sourceUrl: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-14535'
references:
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/trailofbits/fickling/commit/41ce7cb01edd97072994039574a2301ebb3f463d
    label: aa17e1a1-c329-4d6e-a1ed-8d0188aea082
  - url: 'https://github.com/trailofbits/fickling/pull/278'
    label: aa17e1a1-c329-4d6e-a1ed-8d0188aea082
  - url: 'https://github.com/trailofbits/fickling/releases/tag/v0.1.12'
    label: aa17e1a1-c329-4d6e-a1ed-8d0188aea082
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/trailofbits/fickling/security/advisories/GHSA-cffv-grgg-g429
    label: aa17e1a1-c329-4d6e-a1ed-8d0188aea082
tags:
  - nvd
ingestedAt: '2026-07-04T21:57:47.015Z'
epss: 0.00564
epssPercentile: 0.45672
---

## Overview

In Trail of Bits fickling versions up to and including 0.1.11, the UnsafeImportsML analysis pass unconditionally calls AnalysisContext.shorten_code(node) on every import node it inspects, regardless of whether the import is flagged as unsafe. This call registers the shortened code representation in the shared AnalysisContext.reported_shortened_code set. When the MLAllowlist analysis pass subsequently runs, it calls the same shorten_code() method, receives already_reported=True for every import, and executes a continue statement that skips its allowlist check entirely. This renders MLAllowlist dead code for all imports — it never evaluates whether an import is in the ML allowlist or not. The MLAllowlist pass was designed to catch imports of modules outside the known-safe ML ecosystem (torch, numpy, transformers, etc.) that slip past the UnsafeImports denylist. With MLAllowlist inoperative, any standard library module not in the UNSAFE_IMPORTS denylist can be invoked via pickle deserialization while fickling's check_safety() returns LIKELY_SAFE. The fickling.load() API chains check_safety() into pickle.loads() as an explicit security gate, meaning a LIKELY_SAFE verdict causes the payload to be deserialized and executed. The root cause is shared mutable state between independently-correct analysis passes — UnsafeImportsML works as designed in isolation, MLAllowlist works as designed in isolation, but the shared reported_shortened_code set causes UnsafeImportsML to poison MLAllowlist's deduplication logic.

## Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.