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MEDIUM severity

CVE-2021-37685 — tensorflow

MEDIUMFix: tensorflow/tensorflow@d94ffe0

CVE-2021-37685 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.5) Out-of-bounds Read vulnerability in tensorflow. A fix is available for tensorflow — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Heap OOB in TFLite

Also known asBIT-tensorflow-2021-37685GHSA-c545-c4f9-rf6vPYSEC-2021-307PYSEC-2021-598PYSEC-2021-796
Published
Updated
Affected
9 pkgs
Patched
9 / 9
Exploits
None indexed
Exploitation data as of Oct 8, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗
0.2%probability of exploitation in next 30 days
Lower Risk0.00%
Lower risk than most CVEs6th percentile — riskier than 6% of all scored CVEsHighest risk
0.00%0.22%0.45%0.67%0.0%0.2%Apr 26Aug 26Oct 26

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2021-37685 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 385,987 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Real-World Exposure

9 pkgs affected
🐍tensorflow🐍tensorflow🐍tensorflow🐍tensorflow-cpu🐍tensorflow-cpu🐍tensorflow-cpu🐍tensorflow-gpu🐍tensorflow-gpu+1 more

Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.

Description

Impact

TFLite's expand_dims.cc contains a vulnerability which allows reading one element outside of bounds of heap allocated data:

  if (axis < 0) { 
    axis = input_dims.size + 1 + axis;
  }   
  TF_LITE_ENSURE(context, axis <= input_dims.size);

  TfLiteIntArray* output_dims = TfLiteIntArrayCreate(input_dims.size + 1);
  for (int i = 0; i < output_dims->size; ++i) {
    if (i < axis) {
      output_dims->data[i] = input_dims.data[i];
    } else if (i == axis) {
      output_dims->data[i] = 1;
    } else {
      output_dims->data[i] = input_dims.data[i - 1];
    }
  }

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).

Patches

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.

For more information

Please consult our security guide for more information regarding the security model and how to contact us with issues and questions.

Attribution

This vulnerability has been reported by Yakun Zhang of Baidu Security.

Affected Packages

9 total 9 fixed
EcosystemPackageVulnerable rangeFix
🐍PyPItensorflowall versions2.3.4pip install --upgrade 'tensorflow==2.3.4'
🐍PyPItensorflow≥ 2.4.0&&< 2.4.32.4.3pip install --upgrade 'tensorflow==2.4.3'
🐍PyPItensorflow≥ 2.5.0&&< 2.5.12.5.1pip install --upgrade 'tensorflow==2.5.1'
🐍PyPItensorflow-cpuall versions2.3.4pip install --upgrade 'tensorflow-cpu==2.3.4'
🐍PyPItensorflow-cpu≥ 2.4.0&&< 2.4.32.4.3pip install --upgrade 'tensorflow-cpu==2.4.3'
🐍PyPItensorflow-cpu≥ 2.5.0&&< 2.5.12.5.1pip install --upgrade 'tensorflow-cpu==2.5.1'

Affected Products

1 product · 6 configurations
Application
tensorflowgoogle
≥ 2.4.0 && < 2.4.3
2 versions
2.5.02.6.0

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency
  1. Detect

    Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for tensorflow, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

  2. Fix

    Update tensorflow to 2.3.4 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-37685 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

  3. Workarounds

    Stop feeding it untrusted input: reject or quarantine files and payloads from unverified sources until you can upgrade, restrict accepted formats to the ones you actually need, and run the parsing or decoding step in a least-privileged sandbox or short-lived worker so a crash or corrupted read cannot reach the rest of the process.

Frequently Asked Questions

### Impact 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: ```cc if (axis < 0) { axis = input_dims.size + 1 + axis; } TF_LITE_ENSURE(context, axis <= input_dims.size); TfLiteIntArray* output_dims = TfLiteIntArrayCreate(input_dims.size + 1); for (int i = 0; i < output_dims->size; ++i) { if (i < axis) { output_dims->data[i] = input_dims.data[i]; } els
O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2021-37685 in your dependencies?

Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.

CVE-2021-37685: tensorflow — Fixed in 2.3.4