CVE-2021-37685 Heap OOB in TensorFlow Lite

Medium 5.5 Published Updated

Attackers can trigger a heap out-of-bounds read in TensorFlow Lite by providing a large negative axis value, potentially causing crashes or information disclosure.

Exploited in the wild
Not known
Login needed
Any signed-in user
Attackable
Local or same network only
Victim action needed
Not needed
Fix
Available

What is CVE-2021-37685?

CVE-2021-37685 is a medium-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 TFLite's [`expand_dims.cc`](https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/149562d49faa709ea80df1d99fc41d005b81082a/tensorflow/lite/kernels/expand_dims.cc#L36-L50) contains a vulnerability which allows reading one element outside of bounds of heap allocated data. If `axis` is a large negative value (e.g., `-100000`), then after the first `if` it would still be negative. The check following the `if` statement will pass and the `for` loop would read one element before the start of `input_dims.data` (when `i = 0`). We have patched the issue in GitHub commit d94ffe08a65400f898241c0374e9edc6fa8ed257. 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-2021-37685?

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

PackageAffectedFixed in
tensorflow BitnamiFrom 2.3.02.3.4, 2.4.3, 2.5.1
tensorflow PyPIAll versions2.3.4
tensorflow PyPIAll versions2.3.4
tensorflow PyPIFrom 2.3.02.3.4, 2.4.3
tensorflow PyPIFrom 2.4.02.4.3
tensorflow PyPIFrom 2.4.02.4.3
16 more packages
tensorflow PyPIFrom 2.5.02.5.1
tensorflow PyPIFrom 2.5.02.5.1
tensorflow-cpu PyPIAll versions2.3.4
tensorflow-cpu PyPIAll versions2.3.4
tensorflow-cpu PyPIFrom 2.3.02.3.4, 2.4.3
tensorflow-cpu PyPIFrom 2.4.02.4.3
tensorflow-cpu PyPIFrom 2.4.02.4.3
tensorflow-cpu PyPIFrom 2.5.02.5.1
tensorflow-cpu PyPIFrom 2.5.02.5.1
tensorflow-gpu PyPIAll versions2.3.4
tensorflow-gpu PyPIAll versions2.3.4
tensorflow-gpu PyPIFrom 2.3.02.3.4, 2.4.3
tensorflow-gpu PyPIFrom 2.4.02.4.3
tensorflow-gpu PyPIFrom 2.4.02.4.3
tensorflow-gpu PyPIFrom 2.5.02.5.1
tensorflow-gpu PyPIFrom 2.5.02.5.1

Products include Google Tensorflow.

How do I fix CVE-2021-37685?

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-2021-37685 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-37685 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Google Tensorflow vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as BIT-tensorflow-2021-37685, GHSA-c545-c4f9-rf6v, PYSEC-2021-307, PYSEC-2021-598, PYSEC-2021-796.

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