CVE-2021-37639
Published: 12 August 2021
Summary
CVE-2021-37639 is a high-severity NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476) vulnerability in Google Tensorflow. Its CVSS base score is 8.4 (High).
Operationally, ranked at the 2.4th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
This vulnerability is AI-related — categorised as Deep Learning Frameworks.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2021-0365
Vulnerability details
TensorFlow is an end-to-end open source platform for machine learning. When restoring tensors via raw APIs, if the tensor name is not provided, TensorFlow can be tricked into dereferencing a null pointer. Alternatively, attackers can read memory outside the bounds…
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of heap allocated data by providing some tensor names but not enough for a successful restoration. The [implementation](https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/47a06f40411a69c99f381495f490536972152ac0/tensorflow/core/kernels/save_restore_tensor.cc#L158-L159) retrieves the tensor list corresponding to the `tensor_name` user controlled input and immediately retrieves the tensor at the restoration index (controlled via `preferred_shard` argument). This occurs without validating that the provided list has enough values. If the list is empty this results in dereferencing a null pointer (undefined behavior). If, however, the list has some elements, if the restoration index is outside the bounds this results in heap OOB read. We have patched the issue in GitHub commit 9e82dce6e6bd1f36a57e08fa85af213e2b2f2622. 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.
- CWE(s)
AI Security AnalysisAI
- AI Category
- Deep Learning Frameworks
- Risk Domain
- N/A
- OWASP Top 10 for LLMs 2025
- None mapped
- Classification Reason
- Matched keywords: tensorflow, machine learning, tensorflow, tensorflow, tensorflow, tensorflow, tensorflow, tensorflow, tensorflow, tensorflow
Related Threats
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
No mitigating controls mapped yet. The per-CVE control annotator has not reached this CVE.