CVE-2021-37652Use after free in boosted trees creation in TensorFlow
- 7.8HighCVSS base score
- 0.17%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 93% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
TensorFlow is an end-to-end open source platform for machine learning. In affected versions the implementation for `tf.raw_ops.BoostedTreesCreateEnsemble` can result in a use after free error if an attacker supplies specially crafted arguments. The [implementation](https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/f24faa153ad31a4b51578f8181d3aaab77a1ddeb/tensorflow/core/kernels/boosted_trees/resource_ops.cc#L55) uses a reference counted resource and decrements the refcount if the initialization fails, as it should. However, when the code was written, the resource was represented as a naked pointer but later refactoring has changed it to be a smart pointer. Thus, when the pointer leaves the scope, a subsequent `free`-ing of the resource occurs, but this fails to take into account that the refcount has already reached 0, thus the resource has been already freed. During this double-free process, members of the resource object are accessed for cleanup but they are invalid as the entire resource has been freed. We have patched the issue in GitHub commit 5ecec9c6fbdbc6be03295685190a45e7eee726ab. 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.
Timeline
ID reserved
By GitHub_M
- 14 days later
· 14 days later
Published
- 3 years later
· 3 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub_MCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | High7.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | High7.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.17% · top 93% of all CVEs (13 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.8.
Affected products
- affected >= 2.5.0, < 2.5.1
- affected >= 2.4.0, < 2.4.3
- affected < 2.3.4
Affected packages
From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.
- PyPItensorflowGHSA-m7fm-4jfh-jrg6 (opens in a new tab)
- PyPItensorflow-cpuGHSA-m7fm-4jfh-jrg6 (opens in a new tab)
- PyPItensorflow-gpuGHSA-m7fm-4jfh-jrg6 (opens in a new tab)
References
References2
- https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/security/advisories/GHSA-m7fm-4jfh-jrg6 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/commit/5ecec9c6fbdbc6be03295685190a45e7eee726ab (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2021-0378 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-m7fm-4jfh-jrg6 (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2021-37652)Record last updated .