An exploitable vulnerability exists in the YAML parsing functionality in the parse_yaml_query method in parser.py in MLAlchemy before 0.2.2. When processing YAML-Based queries for data, a YAML parser can execute arbitrary Python commands resulting in command execution because load is used where safe_load should have been used. An attacker can insert Python into loaded YAML to trigger this vulnerability.

References

• https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-16615
• thanethomson/MLAlchemy#1
• thanethomson/MLAlchemy@bc79575
• GHSA-xpm8-98mx-h4c5
• https://joel-malwarebenchmark.github.io/blog/2017/11/08/cve-2017-16615-critical-restful-web-applications-vulnerability/