CVE-2021-37649

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

Description

TensorFlow is an end-to-end open source platform for machine learning. The code for `tf.raw_ops.UncompressElement` can be made to trigger a null pointer dereference. The [implementation](https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/f24faa153ad31a4b51578f8181d3aaab77a1ddeb/tensorflow/core/kernels/data/experimental/compression_ops.cc#L50-L53) obtains a pointer to a `CompressedElement` from a `Variant` tensor and then proceeds to dereference it for decompressing. There is no check that the `Variant` tensor contained a `CompressedElement`, so the pointer is actually `nullptr`. We have patched the issue in GitHub commit 7bdf50bb4f5c54a4997c379092888546c97c3ebd. 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-2021-37649

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<7bdf50bb4f5c54a4997c379092888546c97c3ebd||>=2.4.0,<2.4.37bdf50bb4f5c54a4997c379092888546c97c3ebd
python PyPItensorflow-cpu<7bdf50bb4f5c54a4997c379092888546c97c3ebd||>=2.4.0,<2.4.37bdf50bb4f5c54a4997c379092888546c97c3ebd
python PyPItensorflow-gpu<7bdf50bb4f5c54a4997c379092888546c97c3ebd||>=2.4.0,<2.4.37bdf50bb4f5c54a4997c379092888546c97c3ebd

References

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