CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-98589

Low risk· EPSS 8%
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.19%

8th percentile - higher than 8% of all known CVEs

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the BPF verifier does not reject passing PTR_TO_PACKET pointers to subprograms that may mutate the packet. Since these pointers are passed as PTR_TO_MEM, invalid memory may be used.

Risk Assessment

Using invalid packet memory in a BPF subprogram can lead to memory corruption or privilege escalation.

Recommendation

Update the Linux kernel to a version containing the fix that rejects passing PTR_TO_PACKET pointers to subprograms that may mutate the packet.

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 pkt arguments in mutating subprogs The verifier tracks changes in how PTR_TO_PACKET registers' bounds are modified across subprog boundaries. PTR_TO_PACKET registers are actually passed as PTR_TO_MEM, which is assumed valid for the entire call. This is not the case with packet memory, where a pskb_* call may invalidate its memory region. Reject BPF code that passes PTR_TO_PACKET pointers to subprogs that may mutate a packet. We cannot pass the pointer as a true PTR_TO_PACKET because we would also need to somehow pass the PTR_TO_PACKET_META or PTR_TO_PACKET_END to the subprog. Since we cannot avoid representing the pointer in the subprog as PTR_TO_MEM, only permit it if the subprog is guaranteed not to mutate the packet.

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