🛡️ CVE-2021-37649 — tensorflow

🟠 CVSS 8.0 — High ✅ No Known Exploit CWE-476 OSV
8.0
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

Null pointer dereference in UncompressElement

Impact

The code for tf.raw_ops.UncompressElement can be made to trigger a null pointer dereference:

```python

import tensorflow as tf

data = tf.data.Dataset.from_tensors([0.0])

tf.raw_ops.UncompressElement(

compressed=tf.data.experimental.to_variant(data),

output_types=[tf.int64],

output_shapes=[2])

```

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.

Patches

We have patched the issue in GitHub commit [7bdf50bb4f5c54a4997c379092888546c97c3ebd](https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/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.

For more information

Please consult [our security guide](https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/master/SECURITY.md) for more information regarding the security model and how to contact us with issues and questions.

Attribution

This vulnerability has been reported by members of the Aivul Team from Qihoo 360.

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached with local access to the system, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs no privileges on the target. No user interaction is required. Rated impact: confidentiality high, integrity high, availability high.

Weakness class

CVE-2021-37649 is classified as CWE-476: NULL Pointer Dereference. A pointer that can be null is used without a check, crashing the process.

Affected software

CVE-2021-37649 is recorded against 3 packages.

  • tensorflow
  • tensorflow-cpu (from 2.5.0 up to 2.5.1)
  • tensorflow-gpu (from 2.5.0 up to 2.5.1)

Timeline and source

Published on 6 March 2024 and last revised on 8 July 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. A vendor advisory or fix has been published. Record sourced from OSV.

References

github.com (Web)
github.com (Web)
nvd.nist.gov (Web)

Details

Severity MEDIUM
CVSS Score 8.0
CVSS Vector CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
CWE CWE-476
Public Exploit ✅ No
Source OSV
Published 2024-03-06
Updated 2026-08-12
Modified 2026-07-08

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
tensorflow — —
tensorflow-cpu 2.5.0 2.5.1
tensorflow-gpu 2.5.0 2.5.1

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