CVE-2021-37646

critical
Published 2021-08-25 · Modified 2023-12-06
CVSS v3
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CVSS v2
VIR risk
9.5

Description

TensorFlow is an end-to-end open source platform for machine learning. In affected versions the implementation of `tf.raw_ops.StringNGrams` is vulnerable to an integer overflow issue caused by converting a signed integer value to an unsigned one and then allocating memory based on this value. The [implementation](https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/8d72537c6abf5a44103b57b9c2e22c14f5f49698/tensorflow/core/kernels/string_ngrams_op.cc#L184) calls `reserve` on a `tstring` with a value that sometimes can be negative if user supplies negative `ngram_widths`. The `reserve` method calls `TF_TString_Reserve` which has an `unsigned long` argument for the size of the buffer. Hence, the implicit conversion transforms the negative value to a large integer. We have patched the issue in GitHub commit c283e542a3f422420cfdb332414543b62fc4e4a5. The fix will be included in TensorFlow 2.6.0. We will also cherrypick this commit on TensorFlow 2.5.1, TensorFlow 2.4.3, and TensorFlow 2.3.4, 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-2021-37646

OS impact

OSVersionStatusFixed in
arch archfixed2.5.1-1
debian debianforkyfixed0
debian debiansidfixed0

Package impact

EcosystemPackageVulnerableFixed
python PyPItensorflow<2.3.42.3.4
python PyPItensorflow>=2.4.0,<2.4.32.4.3
python PyPItensorflow>=2.5.0,<2.5.12.5.1
python PyPItensorflow-cpu<2.3.42.3.4
python PyPItensorflow-cpu>=2.4.0,<2.4.32.4.3
python PyPItensorflow-cpu>=2.5.0,<2.5.12.5.1
python PyPItensorflow-gpu<2.3.42.3.4
python PyPItensorflow-gpu>=2.4.0,<2.4.32.4.3
python PyPItensorflow-gpu>=2.5.0,<2.5.12.5.1
python PyPItensorflow-cpu<c283e542a3f422420cfdb332414543b62fc4e4a5||>=2.4.0,<2.4.3c283e542a3f422420cfdb332414543b62fc4e4a5
python PyPItensorflow<c283e542a3f422420cfdb332414543b62fc4e4a5||>=2.4.0,<2.4.3c283e542a3f422420cfdb332414543b62fc4e4a5
python PyPItensorflow-gpu<c283e542a3f422420cfdb332414543b62fc4e4a5||>=2.4.0,<2.4.3c283e542a3f422420cfdb332414543b62fc4e4a5

References

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