Back Thehackernews

Google Vertex AI SDK Flaw Let Attackers Hijack Model Uploads via Bucket Squatting

Thehackernews •[email protected] (The Hacker News) • June 16, 2026

Learn how to uncover hidden AI use, see what data it can access, map every AI action to a human owner, and apply practical governance without heavy infrastructure changes.

Learn how to contain Mythos-style AI attacks with practical Zero Trust controls that reduce exposure, stop lateral movement, and limit risk.

The full story

This article is one source in a clustered incident — the cluster page carries the summary, timeline and every other outlet covering it.

Google Vertex AI SDK Vulnerability Enables Code Execution via Bucket Squatting A vulnerability in Google's Vertex AI SDK for Python allowed attackers to hijack machine learning model uploads and execute arbitrary code within Google's infrastructure. Discovered by Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42, the flaw, termed 'Pickle in the Middle,' exploited predictable bucket naming and a lack of ownership verification. Attackers could create a bucket with the same name as a victim's expected staging bucket, leading to model uploads being redirected to the attacker's bucket. This scenario allowed the attacker to replace the model with a malicious version during a narrow time window. The exploit could lead to remote code execution due to the use of Python's pickle serialization format. Google has patched the vulnerability in SDK versions 1.144.0 and 1.148.0, urging users to update. No active exploitation has been reported in the wild. 8 sources 65

Extracted Entities

Platforms (1)

Vertex AI