CVE-2025-38591

NameCVE-2025-38591
DescriptionIn 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.
SourceCVE (at NVD; CERT, ENISA, LWN, oss-sec, fulldisc, Debian ELTS, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Gentoo, SUSE bugzilla/CVE, GitHub advisories/code/issues, web search, more)
ReferencesDLA-4475-1, DLA-4476-1, DSA-6126-1, DSA-6127-1

Vulnerable and fixed packages

The table below lists information on source packages.

Source PackageReleaseVersionStatus
linux (PTS)bullseye5.10.223-1vulnerable
bullseye (security)5.10.249-1fixed
bookworm6.1.159-1vulnerable
bookworm (security)6.1.162-1fixed
trixie6.12.63-1vulnerable
trixie (security)6.12.69-1fixed
forky6.18.5-1fixed
sid6.18.9-1fixed
linux-6.1 (PTS)bullseye (security)6.1.162-1~deb11u1fixed

The information below is based on the following data on fixed versions.

PackageTypeReleaseFixed VersionUrgencyOriginDebian Bugs
linuxsourcebullseye5.10.249-1DLA-4475-1
linuxsourcebookworm6.1.162-1DSA-6127-1
linuxsourcetrixie6.12.69-1DSA-6126-1
linuxsource(unstable)6.16.3-1
linux-6.1sourcebullseye6.1.162-1~deb11u1DLA-4476-1

Notes

https://git.kernel.org/linus/e09299225d5ba3916c91ef70565f7d2187e4cca0 (6.17-rc1)

Search for package or bug name: Reporting problems