Medium

scikit-learn sensitive data leakage vulnerability

Disclosed: 06.06.2024
Updated: 11.10.2026 15:17

A sensitive data leakage vulnerability was identified in scikit-learn's TfidfVectorizer, specifically in versions up to and including 1.4.1.post1, which was fixed in version 1.5.0. The vulnerability arises from the unexpected storage of all tokens present in the training data within the stop_words_ attribute, rather than only storing the subset of tokens required for the TF-IDF technique to function. This behavior leads to the potential leakage of sensitive information, as the stop_words_ attribute could contain tokens that were meant to be discarded and not stored, such as passwords or keys. The impact of this vulnerability varies based on the nature of the data being processed by the vectorizer.

Affected software

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Platform	Package	Vulnerable versions	Fixed in
Python (PyPI)	scikit-learn	< 1.5.0	1.5.0

References

CVSS score 5.3/10

CVSS vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Weakness (CWE): CWE-921, CWE-922
Platform: Python (PyPI)
Package: scikit-learn
Disclosed: 06.06.2024
Updated: 11.10.2026 15:17

Sources and licenses

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - PYSEC-2024-110 - PyPA Advisory Database; CC BY 4.0

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-jw8x-6495-233v - CC BY 4.0

Vulnerability history: scikit-learn

All published vulnerabilities of this package (Python (PyPI)), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.

Total entries: 3
First → latest: 05.2020 06.2024
Without a fix: 0
Exploited in attacks: 0

Severity breakdown

Critical 1
High 1
Medium 1

Disclosures per year

2020: 2
2021: 0
2022: 0
2023: 0
2024: 1
2025: 0
2026: 0

06.06.2024

scikit-learn sensitive data leakage vulnerability this entry

Medium · 5.3 CVE-2024-5206 < 1.5.0 1.5.0
21.11.2020

** DISPUTED ** svm_predict_values in svm.cpp in Libsvm v324, as used in scikit-learn 0.23.2 and other products, allows attackers to cause a denial of service (segmentation fault) via a crafted model S

High · 7.5 CVE-2020-28975 < 0.24.dev0 0.24.dev0
15.05.2020

** DISPUTED ** scikit-learn (aka sklearn) through 0.23.0 can unserialize and execute commands from an untrusted file that is passed to the joblib.load() function, if __reduce__ makes an os.system call

Critical · 9.8 CVE-2020-13092 < 0.23.1 0.23.1

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