AVID-2026-R0780

Description

Heap buffer overflow in MaxPool3DGradGrad (CVE-2021-29576)

Details

TensorFlow is an end-to-end open source platform for machine learning. The implementation of tf.raw_ops.MaxPool3DGradGrad is vulnerable to a heap buffer overflow. The implementation(https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/596c05a159b6fbb9e39ca10b3f7753b7244fa1e9/tensorflow/core/kernels/pooling_ops_3d.cc#L694-L696) does not check that the initialization of Pool3dParameters completes successfully. Since the constructor(https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/596c05a159b6fbb9e39ca10b3f7753b7244fa1e9/tensorflow/core/kernels/pooling_ops_3d.cc#L48-L88) uses OP_REQUIRES to validate conditions, the first assertion that fails interrupts the initialization of params, making it contain invalid data. In turn, this might cause a heap buffer overflow, depending on default initialized values. 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.

Reason for inclusion in AVID: CVE-2021-29576 describes a heap buffer overflow vulnerability in TensorFlow’s MaxPool3DGradGrad, impacting TensorFlow versions and tied to ML software stacks. It directly concerns AI/ML systems, is in a software component used to build/run AI pipelines, constitutes a security vulnerability, and the report provides concrete evidence (CVE entry, affected versions, commit references).

References

Affected or Relevant Artifacts

Developer: tensorflow
Deployer: tensorflow
Artifact Details:

Type	Name
System	tensorflow

Impact

AVID Taxonomy Categorization

Risk domains: Security
SEP subcategories: S0100: Software Vulnerability
Lifecycle stages: L06: Deployment

CVSS

Version	3.1
Vector String	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
Base Score	2.5
Base Severity	🟢 Low
Attack Vector	LOCAL
Attack Complexity	🔴 High
Privileges Required	🟢 Low
User Interaction	NONE
Scope	UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact	NONE
Integrity Impact	NONE
Availability Impact	🟢 Low

CWE

ID	Description
CWE-119	CWE-119: Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

Other information

Report Type: Advisory
Credits:
Date Reported: 2021-05-14
Version: 0.3.3
AVID Entry