🛡️ CVE-2021-37650 — tensorflow

🟠 CVSS 8.0 — High ✅ No Known Exploit CWE-120 OSV
8.0
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

Segfault and heap buffer overflow in {Experimental,}DatasetToTFRecord

Impact

The implementation for tf.raw_ops.ExperimentalDatasetToTFRecord and tf.raw_ops.DatasetToTFRecord can trigger heap buffer overflow and segmentation fault:

```python

import tensorflow as tf

dataset = tf.data.Dataset.range(3)

dataset = tf.data.experimental.to_variant(dataset)

tf.raw_ops.ExperimentalDatasetToTFRecord(

input_dataset=dataset,

filename='/tmp/output',

compression_type='')

```

The [implementation](https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/f24faa153ad31a4b51578f8181d3aaab77a1ddeb/tensorflow/core/kernels/data/experimental/to_tf_record_op.cc#L93-L102) assumes that all records in the dataset are of string type. However, there is no check for that, and the example given above uses numeric types.

Patches

We have patched the issue in GitHub commit [e0b6e58c328059829c3eb968136f17aa72b6c876](https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/commit/e0b6e58c328059829c3eb968136f17aa72b6c876).

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 low-level privileges on the target. No user interaction is required. Rated impact: confidentiality high, integrity high, availability high.

Weakness class

CVE-2021-37650 is classified as CWE-120: Classic Buffer Overflow. Input is copied into a fixed-size buffer without a length check, overwriting memory past the end of it.

Affected software

CVE-2021-37650 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 HIGH
CVSS Score 8.0
CVSS Vector CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
CWE CWE-120
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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