CVE-2022-29216: Code injection in `saved_model_cli` in TensorFlow

Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.5% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2022-05-21 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-94

Description

TensorFlow is an open source platform for machine learning. Prior to versions 2.9.0, 2.8.1, 2.7.2, and 2.6.4, TensorFlow's `saved_model_cli` tool is vulnerable to a code injection. This can be used to open a reverse shell. This code path was maintained for compatibility reasons as the maintainers had several test cases where numpy expressions were used as arguments. However, given that the tool is always run manually, the impact of this is still not severe. The maintainers have now removed the `safe=False` argument, so all parsing is done without calling `eval`. The patch is available in versions 2.9.0, 2.8.1, 2.7.2, and 2.6.4.

Affected products

tensorflow: before 2.6.4; from 2.7.0 before 2.7.2; 2.7.0-rc0, 2.7.0-rc1, 2.8.0, 2.8.0-rc0, 2.8.0-rc1, 2.9.0-rc0 (+1) — fixed in 2.6.4, 2.7.2

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: tensorflow 2.6.4, 2.7.2. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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