CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-98037

Unknown
Published: Translated: NVD NIST

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the BPF verifier treated PTR_UNTRUSTED pointers with the MEM_ALLOC flag as live allocated objects even though their lifetime is no longer protected. The bpf_refcount_acquire() function could then dereference NULL or stale memory.

Risk Assessment

A NULL or stale memory dereference in the kernel is possible, leading to a system crash or potential exploitation for privilege escalation.

Recommendation

Update the Linux kernel to a version containing the fix that rejects PTR_UNTRUSTED pointers in type_is_ptr_alloc_obj().

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

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Original NVD description (English source)

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: Reject untrusted allocated-object pointers When the final RCU read-side critical section ends, a local kptr is demoted to PTR_UNTRUSTED but retains MEM_ALLOC. The pointer may be NULL or may refer to an object whose lifetime is no longer protected. type_is_ptr_alloc_obj() nevertheless recognizes any PTR_TO_BTF_ID with MEM_ALLOC as a live allocated object. In particular, a refcount-only local kptr never carries NON_OWN_REF, so it still passes the bpf_refcount_acquire() argument check after RCU protection ends. The kfunc can then dereference NULL or stale memory. Make type_is_ptr_alloc_obj() reject PTR_UNTRUSTED pointers. Since type_is_non_owning_ref() is based on the same predicate, graph kfunc arguments obey the same live-object requirement. Fault-protected reads of the demoted pointer remain valid: writes are already rejected, and read fixups use bpf_may_fault_on_deref() rather than this predicate. [ kkd: Rewrote commit log ]

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS