CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2021-41213 — TensorFlow is an open source platform for machine learning

Medium CVSS 5.5

TensorFlow is an open source platform for machine learning. In affected versions the code behind `tf.function` API can be made to deadlock when two `tf.function` decorated Python functions are mutually recursive. This occurs due to using a non-reentrant `Lock` Python object. Loading any model which contains mutually recursive functions is vulnerable. An attacker can cause denial of service by causing users to load such models and calling a recursive `tf.function`, although this is not a frequent scenario. The fix will be included in TensorFlow 2.7.0. We will also cherrypick this commit on TensorFlow 2.6.1, TensorFlow 2.5.2, and TensorFlow 2.4.4, as these are also affected and still in supported range.

Severity
Medium
CVSS
5.5 (3.1)
Published
2021-11-05
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
python/pypi
Weaknesses
CWE-667, CWE-662

Affected products

  • google / tensorflow
  • google / tensorflow / 2.7.0

Showing 2 representative product identities from 5 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Race condition, TOCTOU, and lifecycle synchronization

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Map concurrent actors, shared state, lock boundaries, signals, callbacks, retries, and check-then-use sequences in the affected path.
  • Determine whether untrusted users can influence timing, object names, filesystem state, or repeated state transitions.
  • Identify clustered and multi-process behavior that repository-local tests may not represent.

Remediate safely

  • Make the sensitive state transition atomic or protect it with a consistently ordered synchronization primitive.
  • Perform authorization and invariant checks on the same authoritative object and transaction used for the operation.
  • Use unique private resources, safe ownership transfer, and idempotent operations; add deterministic concurrency regression tests.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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