CVE-2020-5215CWE-754

Segmentation faultin TensorFlow when converting a Python string to tf.float16

Medium · published January 28, 2020

CVSS v3.1
5.0
EPSS
1%
Percentile
47.4
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

In TensorFlow before 1.15.2 and 2.0.1, converting a string (from Python) to a tf.float16 value results in a segmentation fault in eager mode as the format checks for this use case are only in the graph mode. This issue can lead to denial of service in inference/training where a malicious attacker can send a data point which contains a string instead of a tf.float16 value. Similar effects can be obtained by manipulating saved models and checkpoints whereby replacing a scalar tf.float16 value with a scalar string will trigger this issue due to automatic conversions. This can be easily reproduced by tf.constant("hello", tf.float16), if eager execution is enabled. This issue is patched in TensorFlow 1.15.1 and 2.0.1 with this vulnerability patched. TensorFlow 2.1.0 was released after we fixed the issue, thus it is not affected. Users are encouraged to switch to TensorFlow 1.15.1, 2.0.1 or 2.1.0.

The record
Technical detail
CVSS v3.1
5.0 · MEDIUM
Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:L
CVSS v4.0
Not supplied
EPSS
0.00588 · 47.4th percentile
Weakness
CWE-754 · Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions
Published
2020-01-28T21:20Z
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 28 JAN 21:20Z
    Segmentation faultin TensorFlow when converting a Python string to tf.float16
    cvelistv5