CVE-2021-29531

critical
Published 2021-05-21 · Modified 2023-12-06
CVSS v3
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
CVSS v2
VIR risk
9.5

Description

TensorFlow is an end-to-end open source platform for machine learning. An attacker can trigger a `CHECK` fail in PNG encoding by providing an empty input tensor as the pixel data. This is because the implementation(https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/e312e0791ce486a80c9d23110841525c6f7c3289/tensorflow/core/kernels/image/encode_png_op.cc#L57-L60) only validates that the total number of pixels in the image does not overflow. Thus, an attacker can send an empty matrix for encoding. However, if the tensor is empty, then the associated buffer is `nullptr`. Hence, when calling `png::WriteImageToBuffer`(https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/e312e0791ce486a80c9d23110841525c6f7c3289/tensorflow/core/kernels/image/encode_png_op.cc#L79-L93), the first argument (i.e., `image.flat<T>().data()`) is `NULL`. This then triggers the `CHECK_NOTNULL` in the first line of `png::WriteImageToBuffer`(https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/e312e0791ce486a80c9d23110841525c6f7c3289/tensorflow/core/lib/png/png_io.cc#L345-L349). Since `image` is null, this results in `abort` being called after printing the stacktrace. Effectively, this allows an attacker to mount a denial of service attack. The fix will be included in TensorFlow 2.5.0. We will also cherrypick this commit on TensorFlow 2.4.2, TensorFlow 2.3.3, TensorFlow 2.2.3 and TensorFlow 2.1.4, as these are also affected and still in supported range.

Predictions

Exploit likelihood
20%
Patch ETA

Heuristic predictions, AS-IS, for prioritization only.

Mitigations

vendor Authored 2026-05-27

Vendor advisory: debian — https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2021-29531

OS impact

OSVersionStatusFixed in
arch archfixed2.5.0-1
debian debianforkyfixed0
debian debiansidfixed0

Package impact

EcosystemPackageVulnerableFixed
python PyPItensorflow-gpu<2.1.42.1.4
python PyPItensorflow-gpu>=2.4.0,<2.4.22.4.2
python PyPItensorflow<2.1.42.1.4
python PyPItensorflow>=2.2.0,<2.2.32.2.3
python PyPItensorflow>=2.3.0,<2.3.32.3.3
python PyPItensorflow>=2.4.0,<2.4.22.4.2
python PyPItensorflow-cpu<2.1.42.1.4
python PyPItensorflow-cpu>=2.2.0,<2.2.32.2.3
python PyPItensorflow-cpu>=2.3.0,<2.3.32.3.3
python PyPItensorflow-cpu>=2.4.0,<2.4.22.4.2
python PyPItensorflow-gpu>=2.2.0,<2.2.32.2.3
python PyPItensorflow-gpu>=2.3.0,<2.3.32.3.3
python PyPItensorflow<26eb323554ffccd173e8a79a8c05c15b685ae4d1||>=2.4.0,<2.4.226eb323554ffccd173e8a79a8c05c15b685ae4d1
python PyPItensorflow-gpu<26eb323554ffccd173e8a79a8c05c15b685ae4d1||>=2.4.0,<2.4.226eb323554ffccd173e8a79a8c05c15b685ae4d1
python PyPItensorflow-cpu<26eb323554ffccd173e8a79a8c05c15b685ae4d1||>=2.4.0,<2.4.226eb323554ffccd173e8a79a8c05c15b685ae4d1

References

Verify integrity in audit chain (admin only). AS-IS.