Cleartext storage of HMAC signing key in Amazon SageMaker Python SDK ModelBuilder/Serve path

Description

Summary

Amazon SageMaker Python SDK is an open-source library for training and deploying machine learning models on Amazon SageMaker. An issue exists where, under certain circumstances, the ModelBuilder/Serve component stores an HMAC signing key in cleartext as a container environment variable, which is returned in plaintext by SageMaker describe APIs.

Impact

When using ModelBuilder to build and deploy models with affected model servers (TorchServe, Multi-Model Server, TensorFlow Serving, SMD, or Triton), the SDK generates an HMAC secret key for model artifact integrity verification and stores it as the SAGEMAKER_SERVE_SECRET_KEY environment variable in the SageMaker model container configuration. This environment variable is returned in plaintext by the DescribeModel, DescribeEndpointConfig, and DescribeModelPackage APIs. A remote authenticated actor with permissions to call these describe APIs and S3 write access to the model artifact path could extract the key, forge valid integrity signatures for specially crafted model artifacts, and achieve code execution in inference containers with the SageMaker execution role's IAM permissions.

Impacted versions: >= v2.199.0 AND <= v2.257.1, >= v3.0.0 AND <= v3.7.1

Patches

This issue has been addressed in Amazon SageMaker Python SDK v2.257.2 and v3.8.0. AWS recommend upgrading to the latest version and rebuilding any models previously created with ModelBuilder using the updated SDK. Models created with affected versions may still have the HMAC key stored in their container environment variables until they are rebuilt with the patched SDK. Ensure any forked or derivative code is patched to incorporate the new fixes.

Workarounds

If upgrading is not immediately possible, users can manually remove the SAGEMAKER_SERVE_SECRET_KEY environment variable from existing SageMaker models by recreating the model without this variable in the container environment configuration.

References

If there any questions or comments about this advisory, contact AWS Security via the vulnerability reporting page or directly via email to [email protected]. Please do not create a public GitHub issue.

Basic information

Type
reviewed
Severity
high
Advisory on GitHub
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Repository advisory
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Source code
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Published (advisory)
2026-05-21 17:42:40 UTC
Updated
2026-05-21 17:42:40 UTC
GitHub reviewed
2026-05-21 17:42:40 UTC
NVD published
2026-05-14

EPSS Score

Score Percentile
0.06% 17.18%

CVSS Scores

Base score Version Severity Vector
7.2 3.1
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:H)
They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
8.5 4.0
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and stable.
Attack requirements (AT:N)
No additional preconditions are required beyond normal reachability.
Privileges required (PR:H)
High privileges are required.
User interaction (UI:N)
No user interaction is required.
Vulnerable system confidentiality impact (VC:H)
High confidentiality impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system integrity impact (VI:N)
No integrity impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system availability impact (VA:N)
No availability impact on the vulnerable system.
Subsequent system confidentiality impact (SC:H)
High confidentiality impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system integrity impact (SI:H)
High integrity impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system availability impact (SA:H)
High availability impact on subsequent systems.

Identifiers

CWEs

CWE id Name
CWE-312 Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information

Affected packages (2)

Vulnerable version ranges and first patched releases as published by GitHub.

Ecosystem Package Vulnerable range First patched Vulnerable functions
pip sagemaker >= 2.199.0, <= 2.257.1 2.257.2
pip sagemaker >= 3.0.0, <= 3.7.1 3.8.0

References

cvelogic Threat Intelligence