CVE-2021-37688: Null pointer dereference in TensorFlow Lite

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: none known
Published: 2021-08-12 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-476

Description

TensorFlow is an end-to-end open source platform for machine learning. In affected versions an attacker can craft a TFLite model that would trigger a null pointer dereference, which would result in a crash and denial of service. The [implementation](https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/149562d49faa709ea80df1d99fc41d005b81082a/tensorflow/lite/kernels/internal/optimized/optimized_ops.h#L268-L285) unconditionally dereferences a pointer. We have patched the issue in GitHub commit 15691e456c7dc9bd6be203b09765b063bf4a380c. 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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