Heap-based buffer overflow in TensorFlow - CVE-2021-29542
Published: May 13, 2021 / Updated: May 4, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU129351
CSH Severity: Medium
CVSSv4.0: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Green
CVE-ID: CVE-2021-29542
CWE-ID: CWE-122
Exploitation vector: Remote access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vulnerable software:
TensorFlow
TensorFlow
Software vendor:
TensorFlow
TensorFlow
Description
The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to cause a denial of service.
The vulnerability exists due to a heap-based buffer overflow in tf.raw_ops.StringNGrams when processing crafted input tensors. A remote attacker can pass crafted inputs to trigger a heap buffer overflow and cause a denial of service.
The issue occurs in corner cases where generated tokens contain only padding elements, causing the implementation to read data[-1] when num_tokens becomes 0.
Remediation
Install security update from vendor's website.