CVE-2021-37654 Heap OOB and CHECK fail in `ResourceGather` in TensorFlow

What is CVE-2021-37654?

CVE-2021-37654 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Google Tensorflow, published on 12 Aug 2021. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

TensorFlow is an end-to-end open source platform for machine learning. In affected versions an attacker can trigger a crash via a `CHECK`-fail in debug builds of TensorFlow using `tf.raw_ops.ResourceGather` or a read from outside the bounds of heap allocated data in the same API in a release build. The [implementation](https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/f24faa153ad31a4b51578f8181d3aaab77a1ddeb/tensorflow/core/kernels/resource_variable_ops.cc#L660-L668) does not check that the `batch_dims` value that the user supplies is less than the rank of the input tensor. Since the implementation uses several for loops over the dimensions of `tensor`, this results in reading data from outside the bounds of heap allocated buffer backing the tensor. We have patched the issue in GitHub commit bc9c546ce7015c57c2f15c168b3d9201de679a1d. 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.

Weakness: CWE-125

Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-37654?

22 open source packages ship an affected version, including tensorflow, tensorflow-cpu and tensorflow-gpu. It affects 1 product.

Products include Google Tensorflow.

How do I fix CVE-2021-37654?

Upgrade tensorflow to a fixed version for your release line: 2.3.4, 2.4.3 or 2.5.1.

Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.

Is CVE-2021-37654 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-37654 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Google Tensorflow

• CVE-2023-25668 TensorFlow vulnerable to heap out-of-buffer read in the QuantizeAndDequantize operation Critical 9.8
• CVE-2018-7575 Integer Overflow or Wraparound in Google TensorFlow Critical 9.8
• CVE-2021-37678 Arbitrary code execution due to YAML deserialization Critical 9.3
• CVE-2021-35958 Path traversal in n/a Critical 9.1
• CVE-2020-15202 Integer truncation in Shard API usage Critical 9.0

All Google Tensorflow vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as BIT-tensorflow-2021-37654, GHSA-2r8p-fg3c-wcj4, PYSEC-2021-276, PYSEC-2021-567, PYSEC-2021-765.