CVE-2021-29513: Type confusion during tensor casts lead to dereferencing null pointers

Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2021-05-14 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-476

Description

TensorFlow is an end-to-end open source platform for machine learning. Calling TF operations with tensors of non-numeric types when the operations expect numeric tensors result in null pointer dereferences. The conversion from Python array to C++ array(https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/ff70c47a396ef1e3cb73c90513da4f5cb71bebba/tensorflow/python/lib/core/ndarray_tensor.cc#L113-L169) is vulnerable to a type confusion. The fix will be included in TensorFlow 2.5.0. We will also cherrypick this commit on TensorFlow 2.4.2, TensorFlow 2.3.3, TensorFlow 2.2.3 and TensorFlow 2.1.4, as these are also affected and still in supported range.

Affected products

tensorflow: before 2.1.4; from 2.2.0 before 2.2.3; from 2.3.0 before 2.3.3; from 2.4.0 before 2.4.2 — fixed in 2.1.4, 2.2.3, 2.3.3, 2.4.2

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: tensorflow 2.1.4, 2.2.3, 2.3.3, 2.4.2. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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