CVE-2021-29517: Division by zero in `Conv3D`

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 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-369

Description

TensorFlow is an end-to-end open source platform for machine learning. A malicious user could trigger a division by 0 in `Conv3D` implementation. The implementation(https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/42033603003965bffac51ae171b51801565e002d/tensorflow/core/kernels/conv_ops_3d.cc#L143-L145) does a modulo operation based on user controlled input. Thus, when `filter` has a 0 as the fifth element, this results in a division by 0. Additionally, if the shape of the two tensors is not valid, an Eigen assertion can be triggered, resulting in a program crash. 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

Get alerted when CVE-2021-29517 or the next vulnerability affects your stack