AVID-2026-R0738

Description

Invalid validation in SparseMatrixSparseCholesky (CVE-2021-29530)

Details

TensorFlow is an end-to-end open source platform for machine learning. An attacker can trigger a null pointer dereference by providing an invalid permutation to tf.raw_ops.SparseMatrixSparseCholesky. This is because the implementation(https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/080f1d9e257589f78b3ffb75debf584168aa6062/tensorflow/core/kernels/sparse/sparse_cholesky_op.cc#L85-L86) fails to properly validate the input arguments. Although ValidateInputs is called and there are checks in the body of this function, the code proceeds to the next line in ValidateInputs since OP_REQUIRES(https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/080f1d9e257589f78b3ffb75debf584168aa6062/tensorflow/core/framework/op_requires.h#L41-L48) is a macro that only exits the current function. Thus, the first validation condition that fails in ValidateInputs will cause an early return from that function. However, the caller will continue execution from the next line. The fix is to either explicitly check context->status() or to convert ValidateInputs to return a Status. The fix will be included in TensorFlow 2.5.0. We will also cherrypick this commit on TensorFlow 2.4.2, TensorFlow 2.3.3, TensorFlow 2.2.3 and TensorFlow 2.1.4, as these are also affected and still in supported range.

Reason for inclusion in AVID: CVE-2021-29530 describes a vulnerability in the TensorFlow library (SparseMatrixSparseCholesky) where invalid input can trigger a NULL pointer dereference. This is an AI framework/library flaw that can affect ML training/deployment pipelines, i.e., a software supply-chain component used to build/run general-purpose AI systems. The issue is a security/safety vulnerability (potential crash/denial by crafted input) and there is sufficient evidence in the CVE description and references to classify it as such.

References

• NVD entry
• https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/security/advisories/GHSA-xcwj-wfcm-m23c
• https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/commit/e6a7c7cc18c3aaad1ae0872cb0a959f5c923d2bd

Affected or Relevant Artifacts

• Developer: tensorflow
• Deployer: tensorflow
• Artifact Details:

Impact

AVID Taxonomy Categorization

• Risk domains: Security
• SEP subcategories: S0100: Software Vulnerability
• Lifecycle stages: L06: Deployment

CVSS

CWE

Other information

• Report Type: Advisory
• Credits:
• Date Reported: 2021-05-14
• Version: 0.3.3
• AVID Entry