How severe is GHSA-h6gw-r52c-724r?

GHSA-h6gw-r52c-724r has a CVSS score of 9.3/10, rated CRITICAL. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by GHSA-h6gw-r52c-724r?

GHSA-h6gw-r52c-724r affects the following packages: tensorflow (PyPI), tensorflow (PyPI), tensorflow (PyPI), tensorflow-cpu (PyPI), tensorflow-cpu (PyPI), tensorflow-cpu (PyPI), tensorflow-gpu (PyPI), tensorflow-gpu (PyPI), and 1 more. Ecosystems affected: PyPI.

How do I fix GHSA-h6gw-r52c-724r?

Update tensorflow to 2.5.3 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-h6gw-r52c-724r is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect GHSA-h6gw-r52c-724r in my PyPI dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for tensorflow. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.

How do I mitigate GHSA-h6gw-r52c-724r if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.

How does O3 Security protect against GHSA-h6gw-r52c-724r?

O3 pinpoints whether GHSA-h6gw-r52c-724r is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Is GHSA-h6gw-r52c-724r actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for GHSA-h6gw-r52c-724r yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

When was GHSA-h6gw-r52c-724r published, and has it been updated?

GHSA-h6gw-r52c-724r was published on February 9, 2022 and was last updated on December 5, 2024. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🐍 PyPI

GHSA-h6gw-r52c-724r

CRITICAL

NULL Pointer Dereference and Access of Uninitialized Pointer in TensorFlow

Published

Feb 9, 2022

Updated

Dec 5, 2024

Affected

9 pkgs

Patched

9 / 9

Exploits

None indexed

Blast Radius

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

The code for boosted trees in TensorFlow is still missing validation. This allows malicious users to read and write outside of bounds of heap allocated data as well as trigger denial of service (via dereferencing nullptrs or via CHECK-failures).

This follows after CVE-2021-41208 where these APIs were still vulnerable to multiple security issues.

Note: Given that the boosted trees implementation in TensorFlow is unmaintained, it is recommend to no longer use these APIs. Instead, please use the downstream TensorFlow Decision Forests project which is newer and supports more features.

These APIs are now deprecated in TensorFlow 2.8. We will remove TensorFlow's boosted trees APIs in subsequent releases.

Patches

We have patched the known issues in multiple GitHub commits.

The fix will be included in TensorFlow 2.8.0. We will also cherrypick this commit on TensorFlow 2.7.1, TensorFlow 2.6.3, and TensorFlow 2.5.3, as these are also affected and still in supported range.

This should allow users to use existing boosted trees APIs for a while until they migrate to TensorFlow Decision Forests, while guaranteeing that known vulnerabilities are fixed.

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

These vulnerabilities have been reported by Yu Tian of Qihoo 360 AIVul Team and Faysal Hossain Shezan from University of Virginia. Some of the issues have been discovered internally after a careful audit of the APIs.

Affected Packages

9 total 9 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐍PyPI	`tensorflow`	all versions	2.5.3
🐍PyPI	`tensorflow`	≥ 2.6.0&&< 2.6.3	2.6.3
🐍PyPI	`tensorflow`	≥ 2.7.0&&< 2.7.1	2.7.1
🐍PyPI	`tensorflow-cpu`	all versions	2.5.3
🐍PyPI	`tensorflow-cpu`	≥ 2.6.0&&< 2.6.3	2.6.3
🐍PyPI	`tensorflow-cpu`	≥ 2.7.0&&< 2.7.1	2.7.1

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for tensorflow. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update tensorflow to 2.5.3 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-h6gw-r52c-724r is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether GHSA-h6gw-r52c-724r is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Tailored to GHSA-h6gw-r52c-724r. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

### Impact The [code for boosted trees in TensorFlow](https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/e0b6e58c328059829c3eb968136f17aa72b6c876/tensorflow/core/kernels/boosted_trees/stats_ops.cc) is still missing validation. This allows malicious users to read and write outside of bounds of heap allocated data as well as trigger denial of service (via dereferencing `nullptr`s or via `CHECK`-failures). This follows after CVE-2021-41208 where these APIs were still vulnerable to multiple security issues. **Note**: Given that the boosted trees implementation in TensorFlow is unmaintained, it is re

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is GHSA-h6gw-r52c-724r in your dependencies?

O3 detects GHSA-h6gw-r52c-724r across PyPI dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.

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