Preface: In software development, time-of-check to time-of-use (TOCTOU, TOCTTOU or TOC/TOU) is a class of software bugs caused by a race condition involving the checking of the state of a part of a system (such as a security credential) and the use of the results of that check.

Background: Intel Neural Compressor is an open source Python* library that performs model compression techniques such as quantization, pruning, and knowledge distillation across multiple deep learning frameworks including TensorFlow*, PyTorch*, and ONNX* (Open Neural Network Exchange) Runtime. The model compression techniques reduce the model size and increase the speed of deep learning inference for more efficient deployment on CPUs or GPUs.

Vulnerability details: Time-of-check Time-of-use race condition in Intel® Neural Compressor software before version 2.5.0 may allow an authenticated user to potentially enable information disclosure via local access.

Ref: When calling a series of methods which require a consistent view of an object, make sure to synchronize on a monitor that will prevent any other access to the object during your operations.

If the class that you are using has a well-designed interface, then synchronizing on the object itself will prevent its state being changed inappropriately.

Official details: Please refer to the link for details – https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/security-center/advisory/intel-sa-01109.html