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Moderate severityNVD Advisory· Published Jul 26, 2023· Updated Oct 23, 2024

Null pointer dereference in paddle.flip

CVE-2023-38670

Description

Null pointer dereference in paddle.flip in PaddlePaddle before 2.5.0. This resulted in a runtime crash and denial of service.

AI Insight

LLM-synthesized narrative grounded in this CVE's description and references.

Null pointer dereference in PaddlePaddle's paddle.flip function before version 2.5.0 allows attackers to cause a denial of service via crafted input.

Vulnerability

Overview

CVE-2023-38670 is a null pointer dereference vulnerability in the paddle.flip function of PaddlePaddle, an open-source deep learning framework. The flaw exists in versions prior to 2.5.0 and results in a runtime crash when processing specially crafted input, leading to a denial of service (DoS) condition [1][2].

Exploitation

Details

An attacker can trigger the vulnerability by providing malicious input to the paddle.flip operation. No authentication is required if the framework is exposed to user-supplied data, such as in a model serving environment. The null pointer dereference occurs during tensor manipulation, causing the application to terminate unexpectedly [2][4].

Impact

Successful exploitation causes a denial of service by crashing the PaddlePaddle process. This can disrupt services that rely on the framework, such as inference endpoints or training pipelines. The vulnerability does not lead to remote code execution or data exfiltration [2].

Mitigation

The issue is fixed in PaddlePaddle version 2.5.0. Users should upgrade to the latest release. The official advisory (PDSA-2023-002) provides further details, and the fix commit adds a check for tensor numel in the relevant function [2][4]. No workarounds are documented.

References
  1. GitHub - PaddlePaddle/Paddle: PArallel Distributed Deep LEarning: Machine Learning Framework from Industrial Practice （『飞桨』核心框架，深度学习&机器学习高性能单机、分布式训练和跨平台部署）
  2. NVD - CVE-2023-38670
  3. check tensor numel in PyObject_CheckLongOrToLong · PaddlePaddle/Paddle@ed96bae

AI Insight generated on May 20, 2026. Synthesized from this CVE's description and the cited reference URLs; citations are validated against the source bundle.

Affected packages

Versions sourced from the GitHub Security Advisory.

PackageAffected versionsPatched versions
paddlepaddlePyPI
< 2.5.02.5.0

Affected products

2

Patches

1
ed96baeed19b

check tensor numel in PyObject_CheckLongOrToLong

https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleRedContritioJan 31, 2023via ghsa
commit
1 file changed · +3 −1
  • paddle/fluid/pybind/op_function_common.cc+3 −1 modified
    @@ -30,6 +30,7 @@
 #include "paddle/fluid/imperative/tracer.h"
 #include "paddle/fluid/imperative/type_defs.h"
 #include "paddle/fluid/operators/ops_extra_info.h"
+#include "paddle/fluid/pybind/eager.h"
 #include "paddle/fluid/pybind/imperative.h"
 #include "paddle/phi/common/complex.h"
 
@@ -70,7 +71,8 @@ bool PyObject_CheckLongOrToLong(PyObject** obj) {
   if ((PyLong_Check(*obj) && !PyBool_Check(*obj)) ||
       PyObject_IsInstance(*obj, (PyObject*)g_vartype_pytype) ||  // NOLINT
       PyObject_IsInstance(*obj, (PyObject*)g_varbase_pytype) ||  // NOLINT
-      PyObject_IsInstance(*obj, (PyObject*)p_tensor_type)) {     // NOLINT
+      (PyObject_IsInstance(*obj, (PyObject*)p_tensor_type) &&    // NOLINT
+       (((TensorObject*)(*obj))->tensor.numel() == 1))) {        // NOLINT
     return true;
   }

Vulnerability mechanics

Generated on May 9, 2026. Inputs: CWE entries + fix-commit diffs from this CVE's patches. Citations validated against bundle.

References

5

News mentions

0

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