CVE-2026-22608 Fickling vulnerable to use of ctypes and pydoc gadget chain to bypass detection
Attackers can achieve remote code execution by chaining ctypes and pydoc gadgets, bypassing the security checks of the Fickling static analyzer.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-22608?
CVE-2026-22608 is a high-severity unsafe deserialization vulnerability in trailofbits fickling, published on 10 Jan 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
Fickling is a Python pickling decompiler and static analyzer. Prior to version 0.1.7, both ctypes and pydoc modules aren't explicitly blocked. Even other existing pickle scanning tools (like picklescan) do not block pydoc.locate. Chaining these two together can achieve RCE while the scanner still reports the file as LIKELY_SAFE. This issue has been patched in version 0.1.7.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-22608?
3 open source packages ship an affected version, including fickling. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
fickling PyPI | All versions | 0.1.7 |
fickling PyPI | All versions | 0.1.7 |
fickling PyPI | All versions | 0.1.7 |
Products include Trailofbits Fickling.
How do I fix CVE-2026-22608?
Upgrade fickling to 0.1.7 or later.
Upgrade, and only deserialise data from trusted sources or with an allow-list of types. More about Unsafe deserialization.
Is CVE-2026-22608 being exploited?
It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-22608 exists.
Other vulnerabilities in trailofbits fickling
- CVE-2026-22606 Fickling has a bypass via runpy.run_path() and runpy.run_module()
- CVE-2026-22607 Fickling Blocklist Bypass: cProfile.run()
- CVE-2026-22609 Fickling has Static Analysis Bypass via Incomplete Dangerous Module Blocklist
- CVE-2026-22612 Fickling vulnerable to detection bypass due to "builtins" blindness
- CVE-2026-14534 Fickling check_safety() bypass via unlisted standard library modules (_posixsubprocess, site, atexit)
Sources
Also known as GHSA-5hvc-6wx8-mvv4, PYSEC-2026-1369.