GHSA-c545-c4f9-rf6v 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.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-c545-c4f9-rf6v by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 385,738 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
tensorflow🐍tensorflow🐍tensorflow🐍tensorflow-cpu🐍tensorflow-cpu🐍tensorflow-cpu🐍tensorflow-gpu🐍tensorflow-gpu+1 moreReal-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
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | tensorflow | all versions | 2.3.4pip install --upgrade 'tensorflow==2.3.4' |
| 🐍PyPI | tensorflow | ≥ 2.4.0&&< 2.4.3 | 2.4.3pip install --upgrade 'tensorflow==2.4.3' |
| 🐍PyPI | tensorflow | ≥ 2.5.0&&< 2.5.1 | 2.5.1pip install --upgrade 'tensorflow==2.5.1' |
| 🐍PyPI | tensorflow-cpu | all versions | 2.3.4pip install --upgrade 'tensorflow-cpu==2.3.4' |
| 🐍PyPI | tensorflow-cpu | ≥ 2.4.0&&< 2.4.3 | 2.4.3pip install --upgrade 'tensorflow-cpu==2.4.3' |
| 🐍PyPI | tensorflow-cpu | ≥ 2.5.0&&< 2.5.1 | 2.5.1pip install --upgrade 'tensorflow-cpu==2.5.1' |
Affected Products
tensorflowgoogleDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
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.
Fix
Update tensorflow to 2.3.4 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-c545-c4f9-rf6v is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
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
Is GHSA-c545-c4f9-rf6v in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.