CVE-2021-37646 MEDIUM

CVE-2021-37646: Bad alloc in `StringNGrams` caused by integer conversion in TensorFlow

Vendor Tensorflow
Product tensorflow
Weakness CWE-681
Published August 12, 2021
Last update August 4, 2024

CVSS base score

5.5/10
Attack vector Local
Attack complexity Low
Privileges required Low
User interaction None
Confidentiality None
Integrity None

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

What the vulnerability does

01Description

TensorFlow is an end-to-end open source platform for machine learning. In affected versions the implementation of `tf.raw_ops.StringNGrams` is vulnerable to an integer overflow issue caused by converting a signed integer value to an unsigned one and then allocating memory based on this value. The [implementation](https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/8d72537c6abf5a44103b57b9c2e22c14f5f49698/tensorflow/core/kernels/string_ngrams_op.cc#L184) calls `reserve` on a `tstring` with a value that sometimes can be negative if user supplies negative `ngram_widths`. The `reserve` method calls `TF_TString_Reserve` which has an `unsigned long` argument for the size of the buffer. Hence, the implicit conversion transforms the negative value to a large integer. We have patched the issue in GitHub commit c283e542a3f422420cfdb332414543b62fc4e4a5. 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.

Key dates

02Disclosure timeline

August 12, 2021 CVE published
August 4, 2024 Record updated