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CVE-2020-15211 is a medium severity vulnerability with a CVSS score of 4.8. Exploits are available; patches have been released and should be applied urgently.
Very low probability of exploitation
EPSS predicts the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days based on real-world threat data, complementing CVSS severity scores with actual risk assessment.
In TensorFlow Lite, saved models in the flatbuffer format use a double indexing scheme: a model has a set of subgraphs, each subgraph has a set of operators and each operator has a set of input/output tensors. The flatbuffer format uses indices for the tensors, indexing into an array of tensors that is owned by the subgraph. This results in a pattern of double array indexing when trying to get the data of each tensor: https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/0e68f4d3295eb0281a517c3662f6698992b7b2cf/tensorflow/lite/kernels/kernel_util.cc#L36
However, some operators can have some tensors be optional. To handle this scenario, the flatbuffer model uses a negative -1 value as index for these tensors:
https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/0e68f4d3295eb0281a517c3662f6698992b7b2cf/tensorflow/lite/c/common.h#L82
This results in special casing during validation at model loading time: https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/0e68f4d3295eb0281a517c3662f6698992b7b2cf/tensorflow/lite/core/subgraph.cc#L566-L580
Unfortunately, this means that the -1 index is a valid tensor index for any operator, including those that don't expect optional inputs and including for output tensors. Thus, this allows writing and reading from outside the bounds of heap allocated arrays, although only at a specific offset from the start of these arrays.
This results in both read and write gadgets, albeit very limited in scope.
We have patched the issue in several commits (46d5b0852, 00302787b7, e11f5558, cd31fd0ce, 1970c21, and fff2c83). We will release patch releases for all versions between 1.15 and 2.3.
We recommend users to upgrade to TensorFlow 1.15.4, 2.0.3, 2.1.2, 2.2.1, or 2.3.1.
A potential workaround would be to add a custom Verifier to the model loading code to ensure that only operators which accept optional inputs use the -1 special value and only for the tensors that they expect to be optional. Since this allow-list type approach is erro-prone, we advise upgrading to the patched code.
Please consult our security guide for more information regarding the security model and how to contact us with issues and questions.
| Vendor | Product |
|---|---|
| Opensuse | Leap |
Please cite this page when referencing data from Strobes VI. Proper attribution helps support our vulnerability intelligence research.
This vulnerability has been reported by members of the Aivul Team from Qihoo 360.
| Tensorflow |