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MEDIUM severity

CVE-2021-37686 — tensorflow

MEDIUMFix: tensorflow/tensorflow@dfa22b3

CVE-2021-37686 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.5) CWE-835 vulnerability in tensorflow. A fix is available for tensorflow — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Infinite loop in TFLite

Also known asBIT-tensorflow-2021-37686GHSA-mhhc-q96p-mfm9PYSEC-2021-308PYSEC-2021-599PYSEC-2021-797
Published
Updated
Affected
3 pkgs
Patched
3 / 3
Exploits
None indexed
Exploitation data as of Oct 9, 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-2021-37686 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 385,386 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Real-World Exposure

3 pkgs affected
🐍tensorflow🐍tensorflow-cpu🐍tensorflow-gpu

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

The strided slice implementation in TFLite has a logic bug which can allow an attacker to trigger an infinite loop. This arises from newly introduced support for ellipsis in axis definition:

  for (int i = 0; i < effective_dims;) {
    if ((1 << i) & op_context->params->ellipsis_mask) {
      // ...
      int ellipsis_end_idx =
          std::min(i + 1 + num_add_axis + op_context->input_dims - begin_count,
                   effective_dims);
      // ...
      for (; i < ellipsis_end_idx; ++i) {
        // ...
      }
      continue;
    }
    // ...
    ++i;
  }

An attacker can craft a model such that ellipsis_end_idx is smaller than i (e.g., always negative). In this case, the inner loop does not increase i and the continue statement causes execution to skip over the preincrement at the end of the outer loop.

Patches

We have patched the issue in GitHub commit dfa22b348b70bb89d6d6ec0ff53973bacb4f4695.

The fix will be included in TensorFlow 2.6.0. This is the only affected version.

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 members of the Aivul Team from Qihoo 360.

Affected Packages

3 total 3 fixed
EcosystemPackageVulnerable rangeFix
🐍PyPItensorflow≥ 2.6.0rc0&&< 2.6.0rc22.6.0rc2pip install --upgrade 'tensorflow==2.6.0rc2'
🐍PyPItensorflow-cpu≥ 2.6.0rc0&&< 2.6.0rc22.6.0rc2pip install --upgrade 'tensorflow-cpu==2.6.0rc2'
🐍PyPItensorflow-gpu≥ 2.6.0rc0&&< 2.6.0rc22.6.0rc2pip install --upgrade 'tensorflow-gpu==2.6.0rc2'

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 2.6.0rc2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-37686 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

  3. Workarounds

    Cap what an attacker can consume: apply request size, rate and timeout limits in front of the affected component, and run it with memory and CPU limits so exhaustion degrades one worker rather than the whole service.

Frequently Asked Questions

### Impact The strided slice implementation in TFLite has a logic bug which can allow an attacker to trigger an infinite loop. This arises from newly introduced support for [ellipsis in axis definition](https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/149562d49faa709ea80df1d99fc41d005b81082a/tensorflow/lite/kernels/strided_slice.cc#L103-L122): ```cc for (int i = 0; i < effective_dims;) { if ((1 << i) & op_context->params->ellipsis_mask) { // ... int ellipsis_end_idx = std::min(i + 1 + num_add_axis + op_context->input_dims - begin_count, effective_di
O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2021-37686 in your dependencies?

Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.

CVE-2021-37686: tensorflow — Fixed in 2.6.0rc2