Vulnerability · Published Aug 12, 2021 · Assigned by GitHub_M

CVE-2021-37652Use after free in boosted trees creation in TensorFlow

High 7.8

In plain English

A high-severity use-after-free in tensorflow from tensorflow. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.2% (higher than 7% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS 3.1)7.8High
Exploit odds (30 days)0.2%top 93.1% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsnot in CISA KEV
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

TensorFlow is an end-to-end open source platform for machine learning. In affected versions the implementation for `tf.raw_ops.BoostedTreesCreateEnsemble` can result in a use after free error if an attacker supplies specially crafted arguments. The [implementation](https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/f24faa153ad31a4b51578f8181d3aaab77a1ddeb/tensorflow/core/kernels/boosted_trees/resource_ops.cc#L55) uses a reference counted resource and decrements the refcount if the initialization fails, as it should. However, when the code was written, the resource was represented as a naked pointer but later refactoring has changed it to be a smart pointer. Thus, when the pointer leaves the scope, a subsequent `free`-ing of the resource occurs, but this fails to take into account that the refcount has already reached 0, thus the resource has been already freed. During this double-free process, members of the resource object are accessed for cleanup but they are invalid as the entire resource has been freed. We have patched the issue in GitHub commit 5ecec9c6fbdbc6be03295685190a45e7eee726ab. 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.

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
PyPItensorflow2.3.4, 2.4.3PYSEC-2021-274
PyPItensorflow2.3.4GHSA-m7fm-4jfh-jrg6
PyPItensorflow2.4.3GHSA-m7fm-4jfh-jrg6
PyPItensorflow2.5.1GHSA-m7fm-4jfh-jrg6
PyPItensorflow-cpu2.4.3GHSA-m7fm-4jfh-jrg6
PyPItensorflow-cpu2.3.4, 2.4.3PYSEC-2021-565
PyPItensorflow-cpu2.3.4GHSA-m7fm-4jfh-jrg6
PyPItensorflow-cpu2.5.1GHSA-m7fm-4jfh-jrg6
PyPItensorflow-gpu2.3.4, 2.4.3PYSEC-2021-763
PyPItensorflow-gpu2.3.4GHSA-m7fm-4jfh-jrg6
PyPItensorflow-gpu2.4.3GHSA-m7fm-4jfh-jrg6
PyPItensorflow-gpu2.5.1GHSA-m7fm-4jfh-jrg6

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
tensorflow tensorflow >= 2.5.0, < 2.5.1>= 2.4.0, < 2.4.3< 2.3.4

Weakness: CWE-416 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

References