CVE-2025-38279: kernel: bpf: Do not include stack ptr register in precision backtracking bookkeeping
Component: kernel
Severity: Low
CWE: CWE-824 (Access of Uninitialized Pointer)
CVSS v3: 3.3 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L)
Public date: 2025-07-10T00:00:00+00:00

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

bpf: Do not include stack ptr register in precision backtracking bookkeeping

Yi Lai reported an issue ([1]) where the following warning appears
in kernel dmesg:
  [   60.643604] verifier backtracking bug
  [   60.643635] WARNING: CPU: 10 PID: 2315 at kernel/bpf/verifier.c:4302 __mark_chain_precision+0x3a6c/0x3e10
  [   60.648428] Modules linked in: bpf_testmod(OE)
  [   60.650471] CPU: 10 UID: 0 PID: 2315 Comm: test_progs Tainted: G           OE       6.15.0-rc4-gef11287f8289-dirty #327 PREEMPT(full)
  [   60.654385] Tainted: [O]=OOT_MODULE, [E]=UNSIGNED_MODULE
  [   60.656682] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.14.0-0-g155821a1990b-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014
  [   60.660475] RIP: 0010:__mark_chain_precision+0x3a6c/0x3e10
  [   60.662814] Code: 5a 30 84 89 ea e8 c4 d9 01 00 80 3d 3e 7d d8 04 00 0f 85 60 fa ff ff c6 05 31 7d d8 04
                       01 48 c7 c7 00 58 30 84 e8 c4 06 a5 ff <0f> 0b e9 46 fa ff ff 48 ...
  [   60.668720] RSP: 0018:ffff888116cc7298 EFLAGS: 00010246
  [   60.671075] RAX: 54d70e82dfd31900 RBX: ffff888115b65e20 RCX: 0000000000000000
  [   60.673659] RDX: 0000000000000001 RSI: 0000000000000004 RDI: 00000000ffffffff
  [   60.676241] RBP: 0000000000000400 R08: ffff8881f6f23bd3 R09: 1ffff1103ede477a
  [   60.678787] R10: dffffc0000000000 R11: ffffed103ede477b R12: ffff888115b60ae8
  [   60.681420] R13: 1ffff11022b6cbc4 R14: 00000000fffffff2 R15: 0000000000000001
  [   60.684030] FS:  00007fc2aedd80c0(0000) GS:ffff88826fa8a000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
  [   60.686837] CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
  [   60.689027] CR2: 000056325369e000 CR3: 000000011088b002 CR4: 0000000000370ef0
  [   60.691623] Call Trace:
  [   60.692821]  <TASK>
  [   60.693960]  ? __pfx_verbose+0x10/0x10
  [   60.695656]  ? __pfx_disasm_kfunc_name+0x10/0x10
  [   60.697495]  check_cond_jmp_op+0x16f7/0x39b0
  [   60.699237]  do_check+0x58fa/0xab10
  ...

Further analysis shows the warning is at line 4302 as below:

  4294                 /* static subprog call instruction, which
  4295                  * means that we are exiting current subprog,
  4296                  * so only r1-r5 could be still requested as
  4297                  * precise, r0 and r6-r10 or any stack slot in
  4298                  * the current frame should be zero by now
  4299                  */
  4300                 if (bt_reg_mask(bt) & ~BPF_REGMASK_ARGS) {
  4301                         verbose(env, "BUG regs %x\n", bt_reg_mask(bt));
  4302                         WARN_ONCE(1, "verifier backtracking bug");
  4303                         return -EFAULT;
  4304                 }

With the below test (also in the next patch):
  __used __naked static void __bpf_jmp_r10(void)
  {
	asm volatile (
	"r2 = 2314885393468386424 ll;"
	"goto +0;"
	"if r2 <= r10 goto +3;"
	"if r1 >= -1835016 goto +0;"
	"if r2 <= 8 goto +0;"
	"if r3 <= 0 goto +0;"
	"exit;"
	::: __clobber_all);
  }

  SEC("?raw_tp")
  __naked void bpf_jmp_r10(void)
  {
	asm volatile (
	"r3 = 0 ll;"
	"call __bpf_jmp_r10;"
	"r0 = 0;"
	"exit;"
	::: __clobber_all);
  }

The following is the verifier failure log:
  0: (18) r3 = 0x0                      ; R3_w=0
  2: (85) call pc+2
  caller:
   R10=fp0
  callee:
   frame1: R1=ctx() R3_w=0 R10=fp0
  5: frame1: R1=ctx() R3_w=0 R10=fp0
  ; asm volatile ("                                 \ @ verifier_precision.c:184
  5: (18) r2 = 0x20202000256c6c78       ; frame1: R2_w=0x20202000256c6c78
  7: (05) goto pc+0
  8: (bd) if r2 <= r10 goto pc+3        ; frame1: R2_w=0x20202000256c6c78 R10=fp0
  9: (35) if r1 >= 0xffe3fff8 goto pc+0         ; frame1: R1=ctx()
  10: (b5) if r2 <= 0x8 goto pc+0
  mark_precise: frame1: last_idx 10 first_idx 0 subseq_idx -1
  mark_precise: frame1: regs=r2 stack= before 9: (35) if r1 >= 0xffe3fff8 goto pc+0
  mark_precise: frame1: regs=r2 stack= before 8: (bd) if r2 <= r10 goto pc+3
  mark_preci
---truncated---


Affected upstream versions: 6.4.4 < 6.5, 6.5
Fixed upstream versions: 0, 6.12.37, 6.15.3, 6.16, 6.5
Upstream repository: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git
Upstream fix commit: 4265682c29c92f52c0da6fad5a79b5801462c8de