🛡️ CVE-2021-37661 — tensorflow

🟡 CVSS 5.0 — Medium ✅ No Known Exploit CWE-681 OSV
5.0
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

Crash caused by integer conversion to unsigned

Impact

An attacker can cause a denial of service in boosted_trees_create_quantile_stream_resource by using negative arguments:

```python

import tensorflow as tf

from tensorflow.python.ops import gen_boosted_trees_ops

import numpy as np

v= tf.Variable([0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0])

gen_boosted_trees_ops.boosted_trees_create_quantile_stream_resource(

quantile_stream_resource_handle = v.handle,

epsilon = [74.82224],

num_streams = [-49],

max_elements = np.int32(586))

```

The [implementation](https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/84d053187cb80d975ef2b9684d4b61981bca0c41/tensorflow/core/kernels/boosted_trees/quantile_ops.cc#L96) does not validate that num_streams only contains non-negative numbers. In turn, [this results in using this value to allocate memory](https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/84d053187cb80d975ef2b9684d4b61981bca0c41/tensorflow/core/kernels/boosted_trees/quantiles/quantile_stream_resource.h#L31-L40):

```cc

class BoostedTreesQuantileStreamResource : public ResourceBase {

public:

BoostedTreesQuantileStreamResource(const float epsilon,

const int64 max_elements,

const int64 num_streams)

: are_buckets_ready_(false),

epsilon_(epsilon),

num_streams_(num_streams),

max_elements_(max_elements) {

streams_.reserve(num_streams_);

...

}

}

```

However, reserve receives an unsigned integer so there is an implicit conversion from a negative value to a large positive unsigned. This results in a crash from the standard library.

Patches

We have patched the issue in GitHub commit [8a84f7a2b5a2b27ecf88d25bad9ac777cd2f7992](https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/commit/8a84f7a2b5a2b27ecf88d25bad9ac777cd2f7992).

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 none, integrity none, availability high.

Affected software

CVE-2021-37661 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 5.0
CVSS Vector CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
CWE CWE-681
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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