CVE-2023-52452

bpf: Fix accesses to uninit stack slots

HIGH
7.8
CVSS Score
Published: February 22, 2024 at 04:21 PM UTC
Updated: October 30, 2026 at 01:17 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorLinux Kernel

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Severity
HIGH7.8
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.2%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: Fix accesses to uninit stack slots Privileged programs are supposed to be able to read uninitialized stack memory (ever since 6715df8d5) but, before this patch, these accesses were permitted inconsistently. In particular, accesses were permitted above state->allocated_stack, but not below it. In other words, if the stack was already "large enough", the access was permitted, but otherwise the access was rejected instead of being allowed to "grow the stack". This undesired rejection was happening in two places: - in check_stack_slot_within_bounds() - in check_stack_range_initialized() This patch arranges for these accesses to be permitted. A bunch of tests that were relying on the old rejection had to change; all of them were changed to add also run unprivileged, in which case the old behavior persists. One tests couldn't be updated - global_func16 - because it can't run unprivileged for other reasons. This patch also fixes the tracking of the stack size for variable-offset reads. This second fix is bundled in the same commit as the first one because they're inter-related. Before this patch, writes to the stack using registers containing a variable offset (as opposed to registers with fixed, known values) were not properly contributing to the function's needed stack size. As a result, it was possible for a program to verify, but then to attempt to read out-of-bounds data at runtime because a too small stack had been allocated for it. Each function tracks the size of the stack it needs in bpf_subprog_info.stack_depth, which is maintained by update_stack_depth(). For regular memory accesses, check_mem_access() was calling update_state_depth() but it was passing in only the fixed part of the offset register, ignoring the variable offset. This was incorrect; the minimum possible value of that register should be used instead. This tracking is now fixed by centralizing the tracking of stack size in grow_stack_state(), and by lifting the calls to grow_stack_state() to check_stack_access_within_bounds() as suggested by Andrii. The code is now simpler and more convincingly tracks the correct maximum stack size. check_stack_range_initialized() can now rely on enough stack having been allocated for the access; this helps with the fix for the first issue. A few tests were changed to also check the stack depth computation. The one that fails without this patch is verifier_var_off:stack_write_priv_vs_unpriv.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

5.12 ≤ v < 6.6.146.7.0 ≤ v < 6.7.21f810ace9ed37255f27608a864abebccf0aab35.10.335.11.175.12d1b725ea5d104caea250427899f4e2e3ab15b4fcf3c4b01689d392373301e6e60d1b02c5b4020afc
Vendor states this is fixed in 0954982db8283016bf38e9db2da5adf47a102e19 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6b4a64bafd107e521c01eec3453ce94a3fb38529 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in fbcf372c8eda2290470268e0afb5ab5d5f5d5fde (fixed)
Affected range stops below 5.11, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.12 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.1.191 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.6.14 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.7.2 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.8 (unaffected)

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

Attack Vector
LOCAL
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
HIGH
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-665

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