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CVE-2021-29542

MediumCVSS 5.5 / 10
Published May 14, 2021·Last modified Apr 11, 2026
Affected Components(0)

No affected components available

Description

TensorFlow is an end-to-end open source platform for machine learning. An attacker can cause a heap buffer overflow by passing crafted inputs to tf.raw_ops.StringNGrams. This is because the implementation(https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/1cdd4da14282210cc759e468d9781741ac7d01bf/tensorflow/core/kernels/string_ngrams_op.cc#L171-L185) fails to consider corner cases where input would be split in such a way that the generated tokens should only contain padding elements. If input is such that num_tokens is 0, then, for data_start_index=0 (when left padding is present), the marked line would result in reading data[-1]. 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.

Risk Scores
Base Score
5.5

The vulnerability requires local access to the device to be exploited. It is easy for an attacker to exploit this vulnerability. An attacker needs basic access or low-level privileges. No user interaction is needed for the attacker to exploit this vulnerability. The impact is confined to the system where the vulnerability exists. There is a high impact on the availability of the system.

Threat Intelligence
5.1

Exploitation attempts have been detected. Elevated vigilance and prompt remediation are advised.

EPSS
0.20%

The exploit probability is very low. The vulnerability is unlikely to be exploited in the next 30 days.

Exploit
Not available

We did not find any exploit available. Neither in GitHub repositories nor in the Exploit-Database.

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