The invention discloses a weakly supervised X-ray image contraband inspection method based on layered propagation and activation, and the method comprises the steps: firstly obtaining X-ray image dataand a corresponding image category, and forming a training sample set and a test sample set; Obtaining a feature map from top to bottom on the training sample set through a convolutional neural network (CNN) hierarchical structure; According to the layered propagation activation method, promoting the activation of each layer of characteristic pattern through the propagation of interlayer and intra-layer confidence coefficients from top to bottom, and finally obtaining the accurate position of the prohibited article. According to the method, weak supervised annotation information is used for learning an image recognition model; when the image is labeled, only simple specified images are needed to have prohibited goods or not and the category information of the prohibited goods; the specific position of the contraband in the image does not need to be accurately labeled, so that the cost of manual labeling is greatly reduced, and the method is of great significance in realizing intelligent detection of the contraband target and reducing unnecessary repeated work in the security inspection process.