CVE-2021-29606: Heap OOB read in TFLite

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-125

Description

TensorFlow is an end-to-end open source platform for machine learning. A specially crafted TFLite model could trigger an OOB read on heap in the TFLite implementation of `Split_V`(https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/c59c37e7b2d563967da813fa50fe20b21f4da683/tensorflow/lite/kernels/split_v.cc#L99). If `axis_value` is not a value between 0 and `NumDimensions(input)`, then the `SizeOfDimension` function(https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/102b211d892f3abc14f845a72047809b39cc65ab/tensorflow/lite/kernels/kernel_util.h#L148-L150) will access data outside the bounds of the tensor shape 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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