CVE-2021-29568: Reference binding to null in `ParameterizedTruncatedNormal`

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-824

Description

TensorFlow is an end-to-end open source platform for machine learning. An attacker can trigger undefined behavior by binding to null pointer in `tf.raw_ops.ParameterizedTruncatedNormal`. This is because the implementation(https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/3f6fe4dfef6f57e768260b48166c27d148f3015f/tensorflow/core/kernels/parameterized_truncated_normal_op.cc#L630) does not validate input arguments before accessing the first element of `shape`. If `shape` argument is empty, then `shape_tensor.flat<T>()` is an empty array. 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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