Public vulnerability disclosure

CVE-2022-49961

bpf: Do mark_chain_precision for ARG_CONST_ALLOC_SIZE_OR_ZERO

published

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: Do mark_chain_precision for ARG_CONST_ALLOC_SIZE_OR_ZERO Precision markers need to be propagated whenever we have an ARG_CONST_* style argument, as the verifier cannot consider imprecise scalars to be equivalent for the purposes of states_equal check when such arguments refine the return value (in this case, set mem_size for PTR_TO_MEM). The resultant mem_size for the R0 is derived from the constant value, and if the verifier incorrectly prunes states considering them equivalent where such arguments exist (by seeing that both registers have reg->precise as false in regsafe), we can end up with invalid programs passing the verifier which can do access beyond what should have been the correct mem_size in that explored state. To show a concrete example of the problem: 0000000000000000 <prog>: 0: r2 = *(u32 *)(r1 + 80) 1: r1 = *(u32 *)(r1 + 76) 2: r3 = r1 3: r3 += 4 4: if r3 > r2 goto +18 <LBB5_5> 5: w2 = 0 6: *(u32 *)(r1 + 0) = r2 7: r1 = *(u32 *)(r1 + 0) 8: r2 = 1 9: if w1 == 0 goto +1 <LBB5_3> 10: r2 = -1 0000000000000058 <LBB5_3>: 11: r1 = 0 ll 13: r3 = 0 14: call bpf_ringbuf_reserve 15: if r0 == 0 goto +7 <LBB5_5> 16: r1 = r0 17: r1 += 16777215 18: w2 = 0 19: *(u8 *)(r1 + 0) = r2 20: r1 = r0 21: r2 = 0 22: call bpf_ringbuf_submit 00000000000000b8 <LBB5_5>: 23: w0 = 0 24: exit For the first case, the single line execution's exploration will prune the search at insn 14 for the branch insn 9's second leg as it will be verified first using r2 = -1 (UINT_MAX), while as w1 at insn 9 will always be 0 so at runtime we don't get error for being greater than UINT_MAX/4 from bpf_ringbuf_reserve. The verifier during regsafe just sees reg->precise as false for both r2 registers in both states, hence considers them equal for purposes of states_equal. If we propagated precise markers using the backtracking support, we would use the precise marking to then ensure that old r2 (UINT_MAX) was within the new r2 (1) and this would never be true, so the verification would rightfully fail. The end result is that the out of bounds access at instruction 19 would be permitted without this fix. Note that reg->precise is always set to true when user does not have CAP_BPF (or when subprog count is greater than 1 (i.e. use of any static or global functions)), hence this is only a problem when precision marks need to be explicitly propagated (i.e. privileged users with CAP_BPF). A simplified test case has been included in the next patch to prevent future regressions.

Technical severityUnscoredNo score in collected sources
Published2025-06-18Source updated 2026-11-05
Collected2026-11-052 attributed sources

Fixes and workarounds

No remediation reported in collected sources.

Missing remediation information is not evidence that no patch exists.

Affected products and versions

Affected products, source version ranges and reporting authorities
ProductVersionsAuthority
Linux
Linux
≥ 457f44363a8894135c85b7a9afd2bd8196db24ab; < 65efb481eb4572fce0f20aa6c13e880816b81579 (affected, git)
≥ 457f44363a8894135c85b7a9afd2bd8196db24ab; < 987b4c465ba28c662ca857be6c20fd2d96bc55f0 (affected, git)
≥ 457f44363a8894135c85b7a9afd2bd8196db24ab; < 2459615a8d7f44ac81f0965bc094e55ccb254717 (affected, git)
≥ 457f44363a8894135c85b7a9afd2bd8196db24ab; < 2fc31465c5373b5ca4edf2e5238558cb62902311 (affected, git)
Other versions: unaffected
CNA: Linux
Linux
Linux
5.8 (affected)
≥ 0; < 5.8 (unaffected, semver)
≥ 5.10.273; ≤ 5.10.* (unaffected, semver)
≥ 5.15.209; ≤ 5.15.* (unaffected, semver)
≥ 5.19.8; ≤ 5.19.* (unaffected, semver)
≥ 6.0; ≤ * (unaffected, original_commit_for_fix)
Other versions: affected
CNA: Linux

Version ranges are source assertions. Check the vendor advisory and your installed configuration before determining exposure.

CVSS assessments

No CVSS assessment reported. An unscored record is not a low-severity determination.

Exploit evidence

No exploit evidence in collected sources. This is not proof of no exploitation.

References

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