AI engineering glossary · Evals guardrails AI security
What is pickle deserialization risk?
Pickle deserialization risk: The danger that loading a Python pickle file, a common format for saved model weights, can execute arbitrary code embedded in the file. Opening an untrusted model in this format is like running an unknown program, so safer formats or scanning are recommended.
Pickle deserialization risk: an example
Loading a downloaded .pkl model file quietly runs a command that installs malware on the developer's laptop.
Related terms
More Evals guardrails AI security terms
- PII detection
- PII redaction
- Prompt injection
- Prompt leaking
- promptfoo
- PyRIT
- Red teaming
- Reference-based evaluation
Where you learn it
Pickle deserialization risk is part of the AI Engineering Program, which teaches it with notes, a hands-on lab and an exam. The first lesson is free.