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Reference binding to nullptr and heap OOB in binary cwise ops

High severity GitHub Reviewed Published Aug 11, 2021 in tensorflow/tensorflow • Updated Feb 1, 2023

Package

pip tensorflow (pip)

Affected versions

< 2.3.4
>= 2.4.0, < 2.4.3
= 2.5.0

Patched versions

2.3.4
2.4.3
2.5.1
pip tensorflow-cpu (pip)
< 2.3.4
>= 2.4.0, < 2.4.3
= 2.5.0
2.3.4
2.4.3
2.5.1
pip tensorflow-gpu (pip)
< 2.3.4
>= 2.4.0, < 2.4.3
= 2.5.0
2.3.4
2.4.3
2.5.1

Description

Impact

An attacker can cause undefined behavior via binding a reference to null pointer in all binary cwise operations that don't require broadcasting (e.g., gradients of binary cwise operations):

import tensorflow as tf

tf.raw_ops.SqrtGrad(y=[4, 16],dy=[])

The implementation assumes that the two inputs have exactly the same number of elements but does not check that. Hence, when the eigen functor executes it triggers heap OOB reads and undefined behavior due to binding to nullptr.

Patches

We have patched the issue in GitHub commit 93f428fd1768df147171ed674fee1fc5ab8309ec.

The fix will be included in TensorFlow 2.6.0. We will also cherrypick this commit on TensorFlow 2.5.1, TensorFlow 2.4.3, and TensorFlow 2.3.4, as these are also affected and still in supported range.

For more information

Please consult our security guide for more information regarding the security model and how to contact us with issues and questions.

Attribution

This vulnerability has been reported by members of the Aivul Team from Qihoo 360.

References

@mihaimaruseac mihaimaruseac published to tensorflow/tensorflow Aug 11, 2021
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Aug 12, 2021
Reviewed Aug 24, 2021
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Aug 25, 2021
Last updated Feb 1, 2023

Severity

High

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
Low
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:H

EPSS score

0.044%
(14th percentile)

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2021-37659

GHSA ID

GHSA-q3g3-h9r4-prrc

Source code

No known source code
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