CVE-2026-23946 Tendenci has Authenticated Remote Code Execution via Pickle Deserialization
Authenticated staff users can execute arbitrary code via unsafe pickle deserialization in the optional Helpdesk module.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- An administrator
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- A user has to click or open something
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-23946?
CVE-2026-23946 is a medium-severity unsafe deserialization vulnerability in tendenci, published on 22 Jan 2026. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Official description
Tendenci is an open source content management system built for non-profits, associations and cause-based sites. Versions 15.3.11 and below include a critical deserialization vulnerability in the Helpdesk module (which is not enabled by default). This vulnerability allows Remote Code Execution (RCE) by an authenticated user with staff security level due to using Python's pickle module in helpdesk /reports/. The original CVE-2020-14942 was incompletely patched. While ticket_list() was fixed to use safe JSON deserialization, the run_report() function still uses unsafe pickle.loads(). The impact is limited to the permissions of the user running the application, typically www-data, which generally lacks write (except for upload directories) and execute permissions. This issue has been fixed in version 15.3.12.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-23946?
3 open source packages ship an affected version, including tendenci. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
tendenci PyPI | All versions | 15.3.12 |
tendenci PyPI | All versions | 15.3.12 |
tendenci PyPI | All versions | 15.3.12 |
Products include Tendenci Tendenci.
How do I fix CVE-2026-23946?
Upgrade tendenci to 15.3.12 or later.
Upgrade, and only deserialise data from trusted sources or with an allow-list of types. More about Unsafe deserialization.
Is CVE-2026-23946 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-23946 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in tendenci
- CVE-2020-14942 Deserialization of Untrusted Data in Tendenci
- CVE-2025-70959 Tendenci CMS Contains a Cross-site Scripting Vulnerability in its Jobs Module
- CVE-2025-70960 Tendenci CMS contains a stored Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the Forums module
- CVE-2020-36962 Tendenci 12.3.1 - CSV/ Formula Injection
Sources
Also known as GHSA-339m-4qw5-j2g3, PYSEC-2026-1950.