NULL Pointer Dereference
CVE-2021-37648
Summary
TensorFlow is an end-to-end open source platform for machine learning. In affected versions the code for `tf.raw_ops.SaveV2` does not properly validate the inputs and an attacker can trigger a null pointer dereference. The [implementation](https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/8d72537c6abf5a44103b57b9c2e22c14f5f49698/tensorflow/core/kernels/save_restore_v2_ops.cc) uses `ValidateInputs` to check that the input arguments are valid. This validation would have caught the illegal state represented by the reproducer above. However, the validation uses `OP_REQUIRES` which translates to setting the `Status` object of the current `OpKernelContext` to an error status, followed by an empty `return` statement which just terminates the execution of the function it is present in. However, this does not mean that the kernel execution is finalized: instead, execution continues from the next line in `Compute` that follows the call to `ValidateInputs`. This is equivalent to lacking the validation. We have patched the issue in GitHub commit 9728c60e136912a12d99ca56e106b7cce7af5986. The fix will be included in TensorFlow 2.6.0-rc2. 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.
- LOW
- LOCAL
- HIGH
- UNCHANGED
- NONE
- LOW
- HIGH
- HIGH
CWE-476 - NULL Pointer Dereference
A NULL pointer dereference occurs when the application dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid, but is NULL, typically causing a crash or exit.
References
Advisory Timeline
- Published