CVE-2021-29570: Heap out of bounds read in `MaxPoolGradWithArgmax`

Severity: high (CVSS 7.1 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: none known
Published: 2021-05-14 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-125

Description

TensorFlow is an end-to-end open source platform for machine learning. The implementation of `tf.raw_ops.MaxPoolGradWithArgmax` can cause reads outside of bounds of heap allocated data if attacker supplies specially crafted inputs. The implementation(https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/ef0c008ee84bad91ec6725ddc42091e19a30cf0e/tensorflow/core/kernels/maxpooling_op.cc#L1016-L1017) uses the same value to index in two different arrays but there is no guarantee that the sizes are identical. 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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