CVE-2025-38591

MEDIUM

Linux Kernel - Invalid BPF Context Access via Narrower Pointer Field Read

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: Reject narrower access to pointer ctx fields The following BPF program, simplified from a syzkaller repro, causes a kernel warning: r0 = *(u8 *)(r1 + 169); exit; With pointer field sk being at offset 168 in __sk_buff. This access is detected as a narrower read in bpf_skb_is_valid_access because it doesn't match offsetof(struct __sk_buff, sk). It is therefore allowed and later proceeds to bpf_convert_ctx_access. Note that for the "is_narrower_load" case in the convert_ctx_accesses(), the insn->off is aligned, so the cnt may not be 0 because it matches the offsetof(struct __sk_buff, sk) in the bpf_convert_ctx_access. However, the target_size stays 0 and the verifier errors with a kernel warning: verifier bug: error during ctx access conversion(1) This patch fixes that to return a proper "invalid bpf_context access off=X size=Y" error on the load instruction. The same issue affects multiple other fields in context structures that allow narrow access. Some other non-affected fields (for sk_msg, sk_lookup, and sockopt) were also changed to use bpf_ctx_range_ptr for consistency. Note this syzkaller crash was reported in the "Closes" link below, which used to be about a different bug, fixed in commit fce7bd8e385a ("bpf/verifier: Handle BPF_LOAD_ACQ instructions in insn_def_regno()"). Because syzbot somehow confused the two bugs, the new crash and repro didn't get reported to the mailing list.

Scores

CVSS v3 5.5
EPSS 0.0019
EPSS Percentile 9.2%
Attack Vector LOCAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CISA SSVC

Vulnrichment
Exploitation none
Automatable no
Technical Impact partial

Details

Status published
Products (20)
linux/Kernel 4.13.0 - 5.10.249linux
linux/Kernel 5.11.0 - 5.15.199linux
linux/Kernel 5.16.0 - 6.1.162linux
linux/Kernel 6.13.0 - 6.16.1linux
linux/Kernel 6.2.0 - 6.12.67linux
Linux/Linux < 4.13
Linux/Linux 4.13
Linux/Linux 5.10.249 - 5.10.*
Linux/Linux 5.15.199 - 5.15.*
Linux/Linux 6.1.162 - 6.1.*
... and 10 more
Published Aug 19, 2025
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026