Graphite Has a Pickle Deserialization Vulnerability

Summary

### Impact **Type of vulnerability:** Insecure Deserialization via Python's `pickle` module.

**Who is impacted:** Users of *Graphite graph database engine* versions **before 0.2** who load database files from untrusted or third-party sources. An attacker could craft a malicious database file that executes arbitrary code when loaded by the engine. This is possible because the engine used `pickle` for serialization, which is known to be unsafe for untrusted data.

### Patches The vulnerability has been patched starting from **version 0.2**. All users should upgrade to **version 0.2 or later** (the current version is 0.4 at publishing time). In version 0.2 and above, the engine uses **JSON** instead of `pickle` for database storage, eliminating the deserialization risk.

### Workarounds If users cannot upgrade immediately:

1. **Do not load database files from untrusted or unknown sources** when using versions <0.2. 2. **Migrate existing pickle-based databases** to the new JSON format using the provided migration module:

```python from graphite.Migration import convert_pickle_to_json convert_pickle_to_json("path/to/old_database.pkl", "path/to/new_database.json") ```

After migration, you can safely use the database with version 0.2+.

**Note:** Versions 0.2 and later will show a **warning** when attempting to load legacy pickle files, reminding you to migrate them. Also, **you can't load pickle files** in 0.2 and later.

### Resources - Upgrade to [v0.2 or newer](https://github.com/mkh-user/graphite/releases) - Migration guide: See `graphite.Migration` module documentation - More on pickle security: [Python docs – pickle security](https://docs.python.org/3/library/pickle.html#module-pickle)