CVE-2026-45829 Chroma CVE debrief

Who should care

Anyone operating ChromaDB Python deployments, especially internet-facing instances or environments that allow users to create or update collections, should treat this as urgent. Teams that rely on model repositories, enable trust_remote_code, or let untrusted users reach the collections endpoint are the highest-priority audience.

Technical summary

The vulnerability is described as a pre-authentication code injection path in the collections API. The attacker does not need prior credentials, and the risky condition is trust_remote_code=true combined with a malicious model repository. The impact described in the source material is full arbitrary code execution on the server, which aligns with a critical CVSS 10.0 classification and CWE-94-style code injection behavior.

Defensive priority

Immediate. This is an unauthenticated server-side code execution condition with direct integrity, confidentiality, and availability impact.

Recommended defensive actions

• Identify all ChromaDB Python deployments version 1.0.0 or later and determine whether the affected collections endpoint is reachable.
• Disable or strictly forbid trust_remote_code for any untrusted or externally supplied model repository content.
• Restrict access to /api/v2/tenants/{tenant}/databases/{db}/collections behind strong authentication, network controls, and least-privilege authorization.
• Treat any exposure of this feature to untrusted users as high risk and remove it from public-facing paths until vendor remediation is available.
• Review logs and host telemetry for unexpected process creation, module loading, or other signs of server-side code execution tied to collection creation or model repository handling.
• Follow project and vendor guidance from the linked issue and research, and apply a fixed release or mitigation once one is published.

Evidence notes

Source corpus describes the issue as a pre-authentication code injection in the ChromaDB Python project, with arbitrary code execution possible when a malicious model repository is processed and trust_remote_code is true. NVD reference metadata lists the Chroma core GitHub issue and HiddenLayer research article as sources. The CVE was published on 2026-05-18 and modified on 2026-05-19; those dates are used here as the vulnerability timeline context.

Official resources