Null-dereference in Tensorflow

Overview

Impact

When decoding a tensor from protobuf, TensorFlow might do a null-dereference if attributes of some mutable arguments to some operations are missing from the proto. This is guarded by a DCHECK:

  const auto* attr = attrs.Find(arg->s()); 
  DCHECK(attr != nullptr);
  if (attr->value_case() == AttrValue::kList) {
    // ...
  }

However, DCHECK is a no-op in production builds and an assertion failure in debug builds. In the first case execution proceeds to the dereferencing of the null pointer, whereas in the second case it results in a crash due to the assertion failure.

Patches

We have patched the issue in GitHub commit 8a513cec4bec15961fbfdedcaa5376522980455c.

The fix will be included in TensorFlow 2.8.0. We will also cherrypick this commit on TensorFlow 2.7.1, and TensorFlow 2.6.3, 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.

Affected packages

• tensorflow < 2.5.3
• tensorflow >= 2.6.0, < 2.6.3
• tensorflow >= 2.7.0, < 2.7.1
• tensorflow-cpu < 2.5.3
• tensorflow-cpu >= 2.6.0, < 2.6.3
• tensorflow-cpu >= 2.7.0, < 2.7.1
• tensorflow-gpu < 2.5.3
• tensorflow-gpu >= 2.6.0, < 2.6.3
• tensorflow-gpu >= 2.7.0, < 2.7.1

Remediation

Upgrade to a patched release:

• tensorflow 2.5.3
• tensorflow 2.6.3
• tensorflow 2.7.1
• tensorflow-cpu 2.5.3
• tensorflow-cpu 2.6.3
• tensorflow-cpu 2.7.1
• tensorflow-gpu 2.5.3
• tensorflow-gpu 2.6.3
• tensorflow-gpu 2.7.1