CVE-2021-29590: Heap OOB read in TFLite's implementation of `Minimum` or `Maximum`

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: yes
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 implementations of the `Minimum` and `Maximum` TFLite operators can be used to read data outside of bounds of heap allocated objects, if any of the two input tensor arguments are empty. This is because the broadcasting implementation(https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/0d45ea1ca641b21b73bcf9c00e0179cda284e7e7/tensorflow/lite/kernels/internal/reference/maximum_minimum.h#L52-L56) indexes in both tensors with the same index but does not validate that the index is within bounds. 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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