CVE-2023-52307: High Severity Stack Overflow Vulnerability in PaddlePaddle Prior to Version 2.6.0

Overview

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) system has recently identified a critical flaw, CVE-2023-52307, in PaddlePaddle, a widely-utilized open-source deep learning platform. This vulnerability is a stack overflow in the paddle.linalg.lu_unpack function of PaddlePaddle versions before 2.6.0, which can lead to potential system compromises and data leakage. Given the widespread use of PaddlePaddle in machine learning and AI fields, the implications of this vulnerability are significant and could potentially affect a broad range of systems and applications.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2023-52307
Severity: High (CVSS: 8.2)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Impact: Potential system compromise and data leakage

Affected Products

Product | Affected Versions

PaddlePaddle | Before 2.6.0

How the Exploit Works

The CVE-2023-52307 vulnerability is a stack overflow issue located within the paddle.linalg.lu_unpack function of PaddlePaddle. An attacker can exploit this flaw by sending specially crafted data to this function, causing the stack to overflow. This can result in a denial of service (DoS) or even allow arbitrary code execution, leading to a system compromise. Moreover, if the compromised system stores or processes sensitive data, this vulnerability could allow an attacker to gain unauthorized access to this data, causing a data breach.

Conceptual Example Code

The following is a conceptual example of how an attacker might exploit this vulnerability using Python:

import paddle
# Create specially crafted data
malicious_data = paddle.randn([1000000000, 1000000000])
# Send malicious data to vulnerable function
paddle.linalg.lu_unpack(malicious_data)

In this example, the attacker creates a tensor of random numbers with an extremely large size and feeds it into the vulnerable `lu_unpack` function. This results in a stack overflow, potentially allowing the attacker to execute arbitrary code or cause a DoS.

Recommendations for Mitigation

As a cybersecurity professional, it is highly recommended to patch your PaddlePaddle to version 2.6.0 or later as soon as possible, as this version contains a fix for CVE-2023-52307. If for any reason applying the vendor patch is not possible, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can provide temporary mitigation. These systems can help detect and block attempts to exploit this vulnerability. However, these are only temporary measures, and applying the vendor patch should be prioritized to ensure robust protection against this high-severity vulnerability.