The Open Weight Model Supply Chain: Provenance, Licences and Unsafe Artefacts

IntermediateFree5 modules · 15 lessons · ~2 min

About this course

A supply chain view of the open weight model you did not train yourself: where the weights actually came from, what the attached licence obligates you to do, and why some serialisation formats execute code the instant they load while others were built specifically to remove that risk. You will learn to verify a download with hashes, signing and revision pinning, trace fine-tune lineage back to a base model, and scan an artefact before it ever runs, building toward the same approved model registry and AI-BOM practices this course's companion Safeguard Academy courses cover operationally.

What you'll learn

The Model as a Supply Chain Artefact

Why a Model Weight File Is a Software Supply Chain Problem
Where Weights Come From: Hubs, Mirrors and Fine-Tune Lineage
The Model Card and What It Does Not Tell You

Licences and Their Obligations

The Open Weight Licence Landscape: Permissive, Restricted and Custom Vendor Terms
Reading a Model Licence: Use Restrictions, Attribution, Redistribution and Output Ownership
Licence Compliance in Practice: Tracking Obligations Across an Estate of Models

Unsafe Serialisation Formats

Pickle and Arbitrary Code Execution on Load
Safer Formats: safetensors, GGUF and ONNX
Converting and Migrating Away from Unsafe Formats

01The Model as a Supply Chain Artefact3 lessons

Why a Model Weight File Is a Software Supply Chain Problem
Where Weights Come From: Hubs, Mirrors and Fine-Tune Lineage
The Model Card and What It Does Not Tell You

02Licences and Their Obligations3 lessons

Common questions

How much does Safeguard Academy cost?

Nothing. Every course, exam, and certificate on the catalog is free — including retakes. All you need is a free Safeguard account.

What are the prerequisites?

None. The flagship course, Safeguard Certified Practitioner, is a beginner-level course — basic familiarity with how software is built helps, but every exam question is answerable from the lessons themselves.

Integrity, Provenance and Fine-Tune Lineage

Verifying a Download: Hashes, Signing and Revision Pinning
Model Cards as Provenance Documents: What They Prove and What They Don't
Fine-Tune Lineage and Supply Chain Trust: Base Models, Adapters and Merges

Scanning and Operating the Program

Scanning Model Artefacts Before They Run: What a Scanner Checks and What It Cannot
Building an Intake Gate: Quarantine, Conversion and the Approved Model Registry
Provenance in the Artificial Intelligence Bill of Materials (AI-BOM), and a Worked Example

The Open Weight Licence Landscape: Permissive, Restricted and Custom Vendor Terms

Reading a Model Licence: Use Restrictions, Attribution, Redistribution and Output Ownership

Licence Compliance in Practice: Tracking Obligations Across an Estate of Models

03Unsafe Serialisation Formats3 lessons

Pickle and Arbitrary Code Execution on Load
Safer Formats: safetensors, GGUF and ONNX
Converting and Migrating Away from Unsafe Formats

04Integrity, Provenance and Fine-Tune Lineage3 lessons

Verifying a Download: Hashes, Signing and Revision Pinning
Model Cards as Provenance Documents: What They Prove and What They Don't
Fine-Tune Lineage and Supply Chain Trust: Base Models, Adapters and Merges

05Scanning and Operating the Program3 lessons

Scanning Model Artefacts Before They Run: What a Scanner Checks and What It Cannot
Building an Intake Gate: Quarantine, Conversion and the Approved Model Registry
Provenance in the Artificial Intelligence Bill of Materials (AI-BOM), and a Worked Example2 min

What happens if I fail the exam?

You can retake it after a 24-hour cooldown, as many times as you need. Retakes are free, and each attempt draws a fresh random set of questions.

How long is a certificate valid?

The Safeguard Certified Practitioner credential is valid for 24 months from issue. The expiry date is printed on the certificate and shown live on its public verification page. Renewing means passing the current exam again.