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Denial of Service in Tensorflow

Moderate severity GitHub Reviewed Published Sep 24, 2020 in tensorflow/tensorflow • Updated Feb 1, 2023

Package

pip tensorflow (pip)

Affected versions

= 2.3.0

Patched versions

2.3.1
pip tensorflow-cpu (pip)
= 2.3.0
2.3.1
pip tensorflow-gpu (pip)
= 2.3.0
2.3.1

Description

Impact

The SparseCountSparseOutput implementation does not validate that the input arguments form a valid sparse tensor. In particular, there is no validation that the indices tensor has rank 2. This tensor must be a matrix because code assumes its elements are accessed as elements of a matrix:
https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/0e68f4d3295eb0281a517c3662f6698992b7b2cf/tensorflow/core/kernels/count_ops.cc#L185

However, malicious users can pass in tensors of different rank, resulting in a CHECK assertion failure and a crash. This can be used to cause denial of service in serving installations, if users are allowed to control the components of the input sparse tensor.

Patches

We have patched the issue in 3cbb917b4714766030b28eba9fb41bb97ce9ee02 and will release a patch release.

We recommend users to upgrade to TensorFlow 2.3.1.

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 is a variant of GHSA-p5f8-gfw5-33w4

References

@mihaimaruseac mihaimaruseac published to tensorflow/tensorflow Sep 24, 2020
Reviewed Sep 25, 2020
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Sep 25, 2020
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Sep 25, 2020
Last updated Feb 1, 2023

Severity

Moderate

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
Network
Attack complexity
High
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
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:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS score

0.182%
(56th percentile)

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2020-15197

GHSA ID

GHSA-qc53-44cj-vfvx

Source code

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