CVE-2021-37692

Segfault on strings tensors with mistmatched dimensions in TensorFlow

MEDIUM
5.5
CVSS Score
Published: August 12, 2021 at 11:00 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 04:00 AM UTC
2 products affected across 2 vendorsTensorflowTensorFlow

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Severity
MEDIUM5.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.2%

Description

TensorFlow is an end-to-end open source platform for machine learning. In affected versions under certain conditions, Go code can trigger a segfault in string deallocation. For string tensors, `C.TF_TString_Dealloc` is called during garbage collection within a finalizer function. However, tensor structure isn't checked until encoding to avoid a performance penalty. The current method for dealloc assumes that encoding succeeded, but segfaults when a string tensor is garbage collected whose encoding failed (e.g., due to mismatched dimensions). To fix this, the call to set the finalizer function is deferred until `NewTensor` returns and, if encoding failed for a string tensor, deallocs are determined based on bytes written. We have patched the issue in GitHub commit 8721ba96e5760c229217b594f6d2ba332beedf22. The fix will be included in TensorFlow 2.6.0. We will also cherrypick this commit on TensorFlow 2.5.1, which is the other affected version.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

2.5.0 ≤ v < 2.6.0
Affected range stops below 2.6.0, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
v < 2.5.1
Affected range stops below 2.5.1, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

CVSS

5.5MEDIUMGitHub_M
Attack Vector
LOCAL
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-20

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