CVE-2025-6921
Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) in huggingface/transformers
The huggingface/transformers library, versions prior to 4.53.0, is vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) in the AdamWeightDecay optimizer. The vulnerability arises from the _do_use_weight_decay method, which processes user-controlled regular expressions in the include_in_weight_decay and exclude_from_weight_decay lists. Malicious regular expressions can cause catastrophic backtracking during the re.search call, leading to 100% CPU utilization and a denial of service. This issue can be exploited by attackers who can control the patterns in these lists, potentially causing the machine learning task to hang and rendering services unresponsive.
Attack profile
How easy it is to exploit
- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges needed
- None
- User interaction
- None
What an attacker can affect
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Low
Exploit likelihood
What each source reports
CVE List Score used
5.3
Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) in huggingface/transformers
The huggingface/transformers library, versions prior to 4.53.0, is vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) in the AdamWeightDecay optimizer. The vulnerability arises from the _do_use_weight_decay method, which processes user-controlled regular expressions in the include_in_weight_decay and exclude_from_weight_decay lists. Malicious regular expressions can cause catastrophic backtracking during the re.search call, leading to 100% CPU utilization and a denial of service. This issue can be exploited by attackers who can control the patterns in these lists, potentially causing the machine learning task to hang and rendering services unresponsive.
- Record
CVE-2025-6921- CVSS 3.0
- 5.3 Medium
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L - Weakness
- CWE-400
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2025-30889
5.3
The huggingface/transformers library, versions prior to 4.53.0, is vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) in the AdamWeightDecay optimizer. The vulnerability arises from the _do_use_weight_decay method, which processes user-controlled regular expressions in the include_in_weight_decay and exclude_from_weight_decay lists. Malicious regular expressions can cause catastrophic backtracking during the re.search call, leading to 100% CPU utilization and a denial of service. This issue can be exploited by attackers who can control the patterns in these lists, potentially causing the machine learning task to hang and rendering services unresponsive.
- Record
EUVD-2025-30889- CVSS 3.0
- 5.3 Medium
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L - Updated
- 2026-11-02
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-4w7r-h757-3r74
5.3
Hugging Face Transformers vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) in the AdamWeightDecay optimizer
The huggingface/transformers library, versions prior to 4.53.0, is vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) in the AdamWeightDecay optimizer. The vulnerability arises from the _do_use_weight_decay method, which processes user-controlled regular expressions in the include_in_weight_decay and exclude_from_weight_decay lists. Malicious regular expressions can cause catastrophic backtracking during the re.search call, leading to 100% CPU utilization and a denial of service. This issue can be exploited by attackers who can control the patterns in these lists, potentially causing the machine learning task to hang and rendering services unresponsive.
- Record
GHSA-4w7r-h757-3r74- CVSS 3.0
- 5.3 Medium
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L - Weakness
- CWE-400
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
NVD
7.5
The huggingface/transformers library, versions prior to 4.53.0, is vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) in the AdamWeightDecay optimizer. The vulnerability arises from the _do_use_weight_decay method, which processes user-controlled regular expressions in the include_in_weight_decay and exclude_from_weight_decay lists. Malicious regular expressions can cause catastrophic backtracking during the re.search call, leading to 100% CPU utilization and a denial of service. This issue can be exploited by attackers who can control the patterns in these lists, potentially causing the machine learning task to hang and rendering services unresponsive.
- Record
CVE-2025-6921- CVSS 3.1
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - CVSS 3.0
- 5.3 Medium
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L - Weakness
- CWE-400
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSV
5.3
Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) in huggingface/transformers
The huggingface/transformers library, versions prior to 4.53.0, is vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) in the AdamWeightDecay optimizer. The vulnerability arises from the _do_use_weight_decay method, which processes user-controlled regular expressions in the include_in_weight_decay and exclude_from_weight_decay lists. Malicious regular expressions can cause catastrophic backtracking during the re.search call, leading to 100% CPU utilization and a denial of service. This issue can be exploited by attackers who can control the patterns in these lists, potentially causing the machine learning task to hang and rendering services unresponsive.
- Record
CVE-2025-6921- CVSS 3.0
- 5.3 Medium
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L - Weakness
- CWE-400
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVGHSA-4w7r-h757-3r74
5.3
Hugging Face Transformers vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) in the AdamWeightDecay optimizer
The huggingface/transformers library, versions prior to 4.53.0, is vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) in the AdamWeightDecay optimizer. The vulnerability arises from the _do_use_weight_decay method, which processes user-controlled regular expressions in the include_in_weight_decay and exclude_from_weight_decay lists. Malicious regular expressions can cause catastrophic backtracking during the re.search call, leading to 100% CPU utilization and a denial of service. This issue can be exploited by attackers who can control the patterns in these lists, potentially causing the machine learning task to hang and rendering services unresponsive.
- Record
GHSA-4w7r-h757-3r74- CVSS 3.0
- 5.3 Medium
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L - Weakness
- CWE-400
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVPYSEC-2026-1980
5.3
Hugging Face Transformers vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) in the AdamWeightDecay optimizer
The huggingface/transformers library, versions prior to 4.53.0, is vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) in the AdamWeightDecay optimizer. The vulnerability arises from the _do_use_weight_decay method, which processes user-controlled regular expressions in the include_in_weight_decay and exclude_from_weight_decay lists. Malicious regular expressions can cause catastrophic backtracking during the re.search call, leading to 100% CPU utilization and a denial of service. This issue can be exploited by attackers who can control the patterns in these lists, potentially causing the machine learning task to hang and rendering services unresponsive.
- Record
PYSEC-2026-1980- CVSS 3.0
- 5.3 Medium
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVopenSUSE-SU-2026:11499-1 No score
python313-transformers-5.15.0-1.1 on GA media
These are all security issues fixed in the python313-transformers-5.15.0-1.1 package on the GA media of openSUSE Tumbleweed.
- Record
openSUSE-SU-2026:11499-1- Updated
- 2026-11-02
Affected products
Affected packages
| Package | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|
transformersPyPI |
before 4.53.0 | 4.53.0 |
transformersPyPI |
before 4.53.0, plus listed versions 0.12.0.02.1.02.1.12.10.0 Show 45 moreShow less2.11.02.2.02.2.12.2.22.3.02.4.02.4.12.5.02.5.12.6.02.7.02.8.02.9.02.9.13.0.03.0.13.0.23.1.03.2.03.3.03.3.13.4.03.5.03.5.14.0.04.0.0rc14.0.14.1.04.1.14.10.04.10.14.10.24.10.34.11.04.11.14.11.24.11.34.12.04.12.14.12.24.12.34.12.44.12.54.13.04.14.0 |
4.53.0 |
python-transformersopenSUSE:Tumbleweed |
before 5.15.0-1.1 | 5.15.0-1.1 |
History
| Recorded | Changed | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| first indexed | CVE List, EUVD, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV |
Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.
In short
CVE-2025-6921 is a medium vulnerability (CVSS 5.3) in Huggingface Huggingface/transformers, published September 23, 2025. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 0.51%, the 43rd percentile. Fixed in transformers 4.53.0.
References
huntr.com/bounties/287d15a7-6e7c-45d2-8c05-11e305776f1f
github.com/huggingface/transformers/commit/47c34fba5c303576560cb29767efb452ff12b8be
nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-6921
github.com/huggingface/transformers/commit/d37f7517972f67e3f2194c000ed0f87f064e5099
github.com/advisories/GHSA-4w7r-h757-3r74
github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2025/6xxx/CVE-2025-6921.json
github.com/huggingface/transformers
pypi.org/project/transformers
suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-6921
Left out here: 134 versions. The JSON record has them.