Missing validation causes denial of service in TensorFlow via `SparseTensorToCSRSparseMatrix`

Summary

TensorFlow is an open source platform for machine learning. Prior to versions 2.9.0, 2.8.1, 2.7.2, and 2.6.4, the implementation of `tf.raw_ops.SparseTensorToCSRSparseMatrix` does not fully validate the input arguments. This results in a `CHECK`-failure which can be used to trigger a denial of service attack. The code assumes `dense_shape` is a vector and `indices` is a matrix (as part of requirements for sparse tensors) but there is no validation for this. Versions 2.9.0, 2.8.1, 2.7.2, and 2.6.4 contain a patch for this issue.

Timeline

1. May 20, 2022, 9:50 PM UTCCVE published
2. Apr 22, 2025, 3:47 PM UTCCISA SSVC assessment

   Exploitation: poc · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial

3. Apr 22, 2025, 5:59 PM UTCRecord last updated

Affected versions

• tensorflow tensorflow

  fixed in 2.6.4; From 2.7.0rc0 · fixed in 2.7.2; From 2.8.0rc0 · fixed in 2.8.1; From 2.9.0rc0 · fixed in 2.9.0

• tensorflow-cpuPyPI

  fixed in 2.6.4; From 2.7.0 · fixed in 2.7.2; From 2.8.0 · fixed in 2.8.1

• tensorflow-gpuPyPI

  fixed in 2.6.4; From 2.7.0 · fixed in 2.7.2; From 2.8.0 · fixed in 2.8.1

• tensorflowPyPI

  fixed in 2.6.4

• tensorflowPyPI

  From 2.7.0 · fixed in 2.7.2

• tensorflowPyPI

  From 2.8.0 · fixed in 2.8.1

• tensorflow-cpuPyPI

  fixed in 2.6.4

• tensorflow-cpuPyPI

  From 2.7.0 · fixed in 2.7.2

• tensorflow-cpuPyPI

  From 2.8.0 · fixed in 2.8.1

• tensorflow-gpuPyPI

  fixed in 2.6.4

• tensorflow-gpuPyPI

  From 2.7.0 · fixed in 2.7.2

• tensorflow-gpuPyPI

  From 2.8.0 · fixed in 2.8.1

• tensorflowPyPI

  fixed in 2.6.4; From 2.7.0 · fixed in 2.7.2; From 2.8.0 · fixed in 2.8.1

References 7