CVE-2025-38591

bpf: Reject narrower access to pointer ctx fields

MEDIUM
5.5
CVSS Score
Published: August 19, 2025 at 05:03 PM UTC
Updated: October 15, 2026 at 02:17 AM UTC
4 products affected across 2 vendorsLinux KernelSIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 Pn /dp MFP FirmwareSiplus S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 Pn /dp MFP Firmware

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Severity
MEDIUM5.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.2%
SSVC
No known exploit

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.

Affected

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

All versions4.13 ≤ v < 6.16.14.13f96da09473b52c09125cc9bf7d7d4576ae8229e0
Vendor states this is fixed in 058a0da4f6d916a79b693384111bb80a90d73763 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 202900ceeef67458c964c2af6e1427c8e533ea7c (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 33660d44e789edb4f303210c813fc56d56377a90 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 7847c4140e06f6e87229faae22cc38525334c156 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in e09299225d5ba3916c91ef70565f7d2187e4cca0 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in e2e9599f3503df7cf3569d2b6c50d5488fb59435 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in feae34c992eb7191862fb1594c704fbbf650fef8 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 4.13 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.10.249 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.15.199 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.1.162 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.12.67 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.16.1 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.17 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.6.157 (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
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
NVD-CWE-noinfo

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