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Moderate severityNVD Advisory· Published Aug 12, 2021· Updated Aug 4, 2024

Use after free and segfault in shape inference functions in TensorFlow

CVE-2021-37690

Description

TensorFlow is an end-to-end open source platform for machine learning. In affected versions when running shape functions, some functions (such as MutableHashTableShape) produce extra output information in the form of a ShapeAndType struct. The shapes embedded in this struct are owned by an inference context that is cleaned up almost immediately; if the upstream code attempts to access this shape information, it can trigger a segfault. ShapeRefiner is mitigating this for normal output shapes by cloning them (and thus putting the newly created shape under ownership of an inference context that will not die), but we were not doing the same for shapes and types. This commit fixes that by doing similar logic on output shapes and types. We have patched the issue in GitHub commit ee119d4a498979525046fba1c3dd3f13a039fbb1. 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.

Affected packages

Versions sourced from the GitHub Security Advisory.

PackageAffected versionsPatched versions
tensorflowPyPI
< 2.3.42.3.4
tensorflowPyPI
>= 2.4.0, < 2.4.32.4.3
tensorflowPyPI
>= 2.5.0, < 2.5.12.5.1
tensorflow-cpuPyPI
< 2.3.42.3.4
tensorflow-cpuPyPI
>= 2.4.0, < 2.4.32.4.3
tensorflow-cpuPyPI
>= 2.5.0, < 2.5.12.5.1
tensorflow-gpuPyPI
< 2.3.42.3.4
tensorflow-gpuPyPI
>= 2.4.0, < 2.4.32.4.3
tensorflow-gpuPyPI
>= 2.5.0, < 2.5.12.5.1

Affected products

1

Patches

1
ee119d4a4989

Fix segmentation fault in shape inference logic.

https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflowDaniel EllisJul 14, 2021via ghsa
commit
1 file changed · +19 −2
  • tensorflow/core/common_runtime/shape_refiner.cc+19 −2 modified
    @@ -120,9 +120,26 @@ Status ShapeRefiner::InferShapesForFunctionSubNode(
     TF_RETURN_IF_ERROR(outer_context->MakeShapeFromShapeProto(proto, &handle));
     outer_context->set_output(index, handle);
 
-    auto* resource = node_context->input_handle_shapes_and_types(0);
+    const std::vector<ShapeAndType>* resource =
+        node_context->input_handle_shapes_and_types(0);
     if (resource) {
-      outer_context->set_output_handle_shapes_and_types(index, *resource);
+      // `ShapesAndType`s contain `ShapeHandle`s.  These `ShapeHandle`s point
+      // to `Shape`s that are owned by a different inference context too.  We
+      // need to copy them to the outer context to prevent them from being
+      // destroyed before they are used.
+      std::vector<ShapeAndType> copied_shapes_and_types;
+      for (auto& shape_and_type : *resource) {
+        ShapeHandle handle;
+        TensorShapeProto proto;
+        node_context->ShapeHandleToProto(shape_and_type.shape, &proto);
+        TF_RETURN_IF_ERROR(
+            outer_context->MakeShapeFromShapeProto(proto, &handle));
+        copied_shapes_and_types.push_back(
+            ShapeAndType(handle, shape_and_type.dtype, shape_and_type.type));
+      }
+
+      outer_context->set_output_handle_shapes_and_types(
+          index, copied_shapes_and_types);
     }
   }

Vulnerability mechanics

Generated by null/stub on May 9, 2026. Inputs: CWE entries + fix-commit diffs from this CVE's patches. Citations validated against bundle.

References

7

News mentions

0

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