In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: Don't infer non-NULL from a pointer with an unbounded offset reg_not_null() decides that a register holds a non-NULL value by looking at its type alone

Overview

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

bpf: Don't infer non-NULL from a pointer with an unbounded offset

reg_not_null() decides that a register holds a non-NULL value by looking at its type alone. For pointer types that allow arithmetic the type only guarantees a non-NULL base, in case of an unbound offset the runtime offset value might still add up to NULL. Consider the followng program:

r6 = bpf_map_lookup_elem(map, &0); /* present / if (r6 == 0) return 0; r7 = bpf_map_lookup_elem(map, &1); / absent, NULL at runtime / r8 = r7; r8 -= r6; / pointer - pointer: unknown scalar, -r6 / r8 <<= 1; r8 >>= 1; / any non-negative offset is accepted by / / check_reg_sane_offset_ptr() / r6 += r8; / verifier: map value; runtime: zero */ if (r7 != r6) return 0; *(u8 )(r7 + 0); / r7 is inferred non-NULL, both are zero */

At runtime both registers are zero, the comparison is true and the load faults with NULL pointer dereference.

Require the offset to be within +-BPF_MAX_VAR_OFF in reg_not_null().

Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.

Vendor advisories

• Red Hat VEX · Moderate · affected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 · no fix planned: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 · updated 2026-10-17 · vex