Researchers Uncover Flaws in Standard Open-Supply Machine Studying Frameworks

Dec 06, 2024Ravie LakshmananSynthetic Intelligence / Vulnerability

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a number of safety flaws impacting open-source machine studying (ML) instruments and frameworks resembling MLflow, H2O, PyTorch, and MLeap that might pave the best way for code execution.

The vulnerabilities, found by JFrog, are a part of a broader assortment of twenty-two safety shortcomings the availability chain safety firm first disclosed final month.

Not like the primary set that concerned flaws on the server-side, the newly detailed ones enable exploitation of ML purchasers and reside in libraries that deal with protected mannequin codecs like Safetensors.

Cybersecurity

“Hijacking an ML client in an organization can allow the attackers to perform extensive lateral movement within the organization,” the corporate mentioned. “An ML client is very likely to have access to important ML services such as ML Model Registries or MLOps Pipelines.”

This, in flip, might expose delicate info resembling mannequin registry credentials, successfully allowing a malicious actor to backdoor saved ML fashions or obtain code execution.

The listing of vulnerabilities is under –

  • CVE-2024-27132 (CVSS rating: 7.2) – An inadequate sanitization concern in MLflow that results in a cross-site scripting (XSS) assault when operating an untrusted recipe in a Jupyter Pocket book, finally leading to client-side distant code execution (RCE)
  • CVE-2024-6960 (CVSS rating: 7.5) – An unsafe deserialization concern in H20 when importing an untrusted ML mannequin, doubtlessly leading to RCE
  • A path traversal concern in PyTorch’s TorchScript characteristic that might lead to denial-of-service (DoS) or code execution because of arbitrary file overwrite, which might then be used to overwrite crucial system recordsdata or a reputable pickle file (No CVE identifier)
  • CVE-2023-5245 (CVSS rating: 7.5) – A path traversal concern in MLeap when loading a saved mannequin in zipped format can result in a Zip Slip vulnerability, leading to arbitrary file overwrite and potential code execution
Cybersecurity

JFrog famous that ML fashions should not be blindly loaded even in circumstances the place they’re loaded from a protected kind, resembling Safetensors, as they’ve the aptitude to realize arbitrary code execution.

“AI and Machine Learning (ML) tools hold immense potential for innovation, but can also open the door for attackers to cause widespread damage to any organization,” Shachar Menashe, JFrog’s VP of Safety Analysis, mentioned in an announcement.

“To safeguard against these threats, it’s important to know which models you’re using and never load untrusted ML models even from a ‘safe’ ML repository. Doing so can lead to remote code execution in some scenarios, causing extensive harm to your organization.”

Discovered this text attention-grabbing? Observe us on Twitter and LinkedIn to learn extra unique content material we submit.

Recent articles