CVE-2021-41217: Null pointer exception when `Exit` node is not preceded by `Enter` op

Impact

The process of building the control flow graph for a TensorFlow model is vulnerable to a null pointer exception when nodes that should be paired are not:

import tensorflow as tf
  
@tf.function
def func():
  return tf.raw_ops.Exit(data=[False,False])
    
func()

This occurs because the code assumes that the first node in the pairing (e.g., an Enter node) always exists when encountering the second node (e.g., an Exit node):

  ...
} else if (IsExit(curr_node)) {
  // Exit to the parent frame.
  parent = parent_nodes[curr_id];         
  frame_name = cf_info->frame_names[parent->id()];
  ...                

When this is not the case, parent is nullptr so dereferencing it causes a crash.

Patches

We have patched the issue in GitHub commit 05cbebd3c6bb8f517a158b0155debb8df79017ff.

The fix will be included in TensorFlow 2.7.0. We will also cherrypick this commit on TensorFlow 2.6.1, TensorFlow 2.5.2, and TensorFlow 2.4.4, 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.

Attribution

This vulnerability has been reported by members of the Aivul Team from Qihoo 360.