CVE-2021-37662: Reference binding to nullptr in boosted trees in TensorFlow

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: none known
Published: 2021-08-12 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-824

Description

TensorFlow is an end-to-end open source platform for machine learning. In affected versions an attacker can generate undefined behavior via a reference binding to nullptr in `BoostedTreesCalculateBestGainsPerFeature` and similar attack can occur in `BoostedTreesCalculateBestFeatureSplitV2`. The [implementation](https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/84d053187cb80d975ef2b9684d4b61981bca0c41/tensorflow/core/kernels/boosted_trees/stats_ops.cc) does not validate the input values. We have patched the issue in GitHub commit 9c87c32c710d0b5b53dc6fd3bfde4046e1f7a5ad and in commit 429f009d2b2c09028647dd4bb7b3f6f414bbaad7. The fix will be included in TensorFlow 2.6.0. We will also cherrypick this commit on TensorFlow 2.5.1, TensorFlow 2.4.3, and TensorFlow 2.3.4, as these are also affected and still in supported range.

Affected products

tensorflow: from 2.3.0 before 2.3.4; from 2.4.0 before 2.4.3; 2.5.0, 2.6.0-rc0, 2.6.0-rc1, 2.6.0-rc2 — fixed in 2.3.4, 2.4.3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: tensorflow 2.3.4, 2.4.3. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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