CVE-2021-29572: Reference binding to nullptr in `SdcaOptimizer`

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-476

Description

TensorFlow is an end-to-end open source platform for machine learning. The implementation of `tf.raw_ops.SdcaOptimizer` triggers undefined behavior due to dereferencing a null pointer. The implementation(https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/60a45c8b6192a4699f2e2709a2645a751d435cc3/tensorflow/core/kernels/sdca_internal.cc) does not validate that the user supplied arguments satisfy all constraints expected by the op(https://www.tensorflow.org/api_docs/python/tf/raw_ops/SdcaOptimizer). 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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