CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2021-29583 — TensorFlow is an end-to-end open source platform for machine learning

High CVSS 7.8

TensorFlow is an end-to-end open source platform for machine learning. The implementation of `tf.raw_ops.FusedBatchNorm` is vulnerable to a heap buffer overflow. If the tensors are empty, the same implementation can trigger undefined behavior by dereferencing null pointers. The implementation(https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/57d86e0db5d1365f19adcce848dfc1bf89fdd4c7/tensorflow/core/kernels/fused_batch_norm_op.cc) fails to validate that `scale`, `offset`, `mean` and `variance` (the last two only when required) all have the same number of elements as the number of channels of `x`. This results in heap out of bounds reads when the buffers backing these tensors are indexed past their boundary. If the tensors are empty, the validation mentioned in the above paragraph would also trigger and prevent the undefined behavior. The fix will be included in TensorFlow 2.5.0. We will also cherrypick this commit on TensorFlow 2.4.2, TensorFlow 2.3.3, TensorFlow 2.2.3 and TensorFlow 2.1.4, as these are also affected and still in supported range.

Severity
High
CVSS
7.8 (3.1)
Published
2021-05-14
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-476, CWE-125

Affected products

  • google / tensorflow

Showing 1 representative product identities from 4 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Buffer bounds, memory safety, and memory corruption

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Check exposure

  • Identify affected native-code versions, build flags, architectures, parsers, codecs, drivers, and input paths in all shipped artifacts.
  • Determine whether untrusted data reaches the affected routine and the process privilege, sandbox, and network exposure.
  • Confirm statically linked, vendored, firmware, and platform-provided copies, not only package-manager records.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the maintained upstream correction or replace the affected component, then rebuild every dependent artifact from clean inputs.
  • Adopt bounds-checked interfaces, validated sizes and integer conversions, clear ownership, and memory-safe components where practical.
  • Enable supported compiler and runtime hardening and add sanitized tests and fuzz regression seeds derived from non-weaponized fixtures.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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