CVE-2025-23307 Overview
CVE-2025-23307 is a code injection vulnerability affecting NVIDIA NeMo Curator across all supported platforms. An attacker with local access can craft a malicious file that triggers code injection when processed by NeMo Curator. Successful exploitation can lead to arbitrary code execution, privilege escalation, information disclosure, and data tampering. The flaw is classified under CWE-94: Improper Control of Generation of Code. NVIDIA has published a security bulletin addressing the issue in its NVIDIA Support Article.
Critical Impact
Local attackers can execute arbitrary code within the context of the NeMo Curator process, compromising confidentiality, integrity, and availability of AI data pipelines.
Affected Products
- NVIDIA NeMo Curator (all platforms)
- Component: nvidia:nemo_curator
- Deployments processing untrusted files through NeMo Curator workflows
Discovery Timeline
- 2025-08-26 - CVE-2025-23307 published to NVD
- 2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database
Technical Details for CVE-2025-23307
Vulnerability Analysis
NVIDIA NeMo Curator is a data curation toolkit used to prepare datasets for training large language models. The vulnerability allows an attacker to embed executable code inside a specially crafted input file. When NeMo Curator processes that file, the embedded code is evaluated within the application context.
Exploitation requires local access and low-level user privileges, but no user interaction beyond feeding the file into the curation pipeline. The impact spans code execution, privilege escalation, information disclosure, and data tampering, which affects the integrity of downstream AI training data.
Root Cause
The root cause is improper control of code generation (CWE-94). NeMo Curator does not adequately sanitize or isolate content within attacker-controlled files before that content influences code paths executed by the interpreter. This allows attacker-supplied instructions to be treated as trusted code.
Attack Vector
The attack vector is local. An attacker places a malicious file where NeMo Curator will ingest it, either through shared storage, a data pipeline drop location, or user-driven import. When a legitimate user or automated job runs curation against the file, the injected code executes with the privileges of the NeMo Curator process. See the NIST CVE-2025-23307 Detail for the authoritative record.
No verified public proof-of-concept code is available. Refer to the NVIDIA Support Article for vendor-supplied technical context.
Detection Methods for CVE-2025-23307
Indicators of Compromise
- Unexpected child processes spawned by Python interpreters or NeMo Curator worker processes
- Outbound network connections from data curation hosts to unfamiliar destinations
- New or modified files in NeMo Curator working directories that do not match expected dataset formats
- Curation jobs that terminate abnormally or produce output files with unexpected permissions or ownership
Detection Strategies
- Baseline the expected process tree for NeMo Curator jobs and alert on deviations such as shells, curl, wget, or compiler invocations
- Monitor filesystem writes into dataset input directories from non-standard user accounts
- Track imports and evaluations performed by NeMo Curator against a known-good allowlist of modules
Monitoring Recommendations
- Enable command-line and process-lineage logging on hosts running nemo_curator
- Forward audit logs from data pipeline hosts to a centralized analytics platform for correlation
- Alert on privilege changes or credential access originating from AI/ML workload accounts
How to Mitigate CVE-2025-23307
Immediate Actions Required
- Apply the fixed NeMo Curator version referenced in the NVIDIA Support Article
- Restrict who can write to directories consumed by NeMo Curator ingestion jobs
- Run NeMo Curator under a dedicated low-privilege service account isolated from other AI workloads
- Inventory all NeMo Curator deployments, including containerized and notebook-based instances
Patch Information
NVIDIA has released updated NeMo Curator packages that address CVE-2025-23307. Consult the NVIDIA Support Article for the specific fixed versions and upgrade procedures. Cross-reference with the CVE.org Record for CVE-2025-23307 to confirm the vulnerability scope before rolling changes into production pipelines.
Workarounds
- Process only files originating from trusted and authenticated sources until patching is complete
- Execute NeMo Curator inside a sandboxed container with read-only mounts and no outbound network access
- Apply file-type and schema validation before curation jobs read attacker-reachable inputs
- Remove interactive execution features and disable arbitrary code evaluation paths where configurable
Disclaimer: This content was generated using AI. While we strive for accuracy, please verify critical information with official sources.
