CVE-2021-37678

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

Description

TensorFlow is an end-to-end open source platform for machine learning. In affected versions TensorFlow and Keras can be tricked to perform arbitrary code execution when deserializing a Keras model from YAML format. The [implementation](https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/460e000de3a83278fb00b61a16d161b1964f15f4/tensorflow/python/keras/saving/model_config.py#L66-L104) uses `yaml.unsafe_load` which can perform arbitrary code execution on the input. Given that YAML format support requires a significant amount of work, we have removed it for now. We have patched the issue in GitHub commit 23d6383eb6c14084a8fc3bdf164043b974818012. 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-2021-37678

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<23d6383eb6c14084a8fc3bdf164043b974818012||>=2.4.0,<2.4.323d6383eb6c14084a8fc3bdf164043b974818012
python PyPItensorflow-cpu<23d6383eb6c14084a8fc3bdf164043b974818012||>=2.4.0,<2.4.323d6383eb6c14084a8fc3bdf164043b974818012
python PyPItensorflow-gpu<23d6383eb6c14084a8fc3bdf164043b974818012||>=2.4.0,<2.4.323d6383eb6c14084a8fc3bdf164043b974818012

References

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