[PATCH bpf-next v3 00/13] bpf: static stack liveness data flow analysis

Eduard Zingerman
2026-04-10T09:29:30Z

This patch set converts current dynamic stack slot liveness tracking
mechanism to a static data flow analysis. The result is used during
state pruning (clean_verifier_state): to zero out dead stack slots,
enabling more aggressive state equivalence and pruning. To improve
analysis precision live stack slot tracking is converted to 4-byte
granularity.

The key ideas and the bulk of the execution behind the series belong
to Alexei Starovoitov. I contributed to patch set integration
with existing liveness tracking mechanism.

Due to complexity of the changes the bisectability property of the
patch set is not preserved. Some selftests may fail between
intermediate patches of the series.

Analysis consists of two passes:
- A forward fixed-point analysis that tracks which frame's FP each
register value is derived from, and at what byte offset. This is
needed because a callee can receive a pointer to its caller's stack
frame (e.g. r1 = fp-16 at the call site), then do *(u64 *)(r1 + 0)
inside the callee - a cross-frame stack access that the callee's
local liveness must attribute to the caller's stack.
- A backward dataflow pass within each callee subprog that computes
live_in = (live_out \ def) ∪ use for both local and non-local
(ancestor) stack slots. The result of the analysis for callee is
propagated up to the callsite.

The key idea making such analysis possible is that limited and
conservative argument tracking pass is sufficient to recover most of
the offsets / stack pointer arguments.

Changelog:
v2 -> v3:
liveness.c:
- record_stack_access(): handle S64_MIN (unknown read) with
imprecise offset. Test case can't be created with existing
helpers/kfuncs (sashiko).
- fmt_subprog(): handle NULL name (subprogs without BTF info).
- print_instance(): use u64 for pos/insn_pos avoid truncation
(bot+bpf-ci).
- compute_subprog_args(): return error if
'env->callsite_at_stack[idx] = kvmalloc_objs(...)' fails
(sashiko).
- clear_overlapping_stack_slots(): avoid integer promoting
issues by adding explicit (int) cast (sashiko).

bpf_verifier.h, verifier.c, liveness.c:
- Fixes in comments and commit messages (bot+bpf-ci).

v1 -> v2:
liveness.c:
- Removed func_instance->callsites and replaced it with explicit
spine passed through analys_subprog() calls (sashiko).
- Fixed BPF_LOAD_ACQ handling in arg_track_xfer: don't clear dst
register tracking (sashiko).
- Various error threading nits highlighted by bots
(sashiko, bot+bpf-ci).
- Massaged fmt_spis_mask() to be more concise (Alexei)

verifier.c:
- Move subprog_info[i].name assignment from add_subprog_and_kfunc to
check_btf_func (sashiko, bot+bpf-ci).
- Fixed inverse usage of msb/lsb halves by patch
"bpf: make liveness.c track stack with 4-byte granularity"
(sashiko, bot+bpf-ci).

v1: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20260408-patch-set-v1-0-1a666e860d42@gmail.com/
v2: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20260409-patch-set-v2-0-651804512349@gmail.com/

Verification performance impact:

========= selftests: master vs patch-set =========

File Program Insns (A) Insns (B) Insns (DIFF)
----------------------- ------------- --------- --------- ---------------
xdp_synproxy_kern.bpf.o syncookie_tc 20363 22910 +2547 (+12.51%)
xdp_synproxy_kern.bpf.o syncookie_xdp 20450 23001 +2551 (+12.47%)

Total progs: 4490
Old success: 2856
New success: 2856
total_insns diff min: -80.26%
total_insns diff max: 12.51%
0 -> value: 0
value -> 0: 0
total_insns abs max old: 837,487
total_insns abs max new: 837,487
-85 .. -75 %: 1
-50 .. -40 %: 1
-35 .. -25 %: 1
-20 .. -10 %: 5
-10 .. 0 %: 18
0 .. 5 %: 4458
5 .. 15 %: 6

========= scx: master vs patch-set =========

File Program Insns (A) Insns (B) Insns (DIFF)
-------------- --------- --------- --------- --------------
scx_qmap.bpf.o qmap_init 20230 19022 -1208 (-5.97%)

Total progs: 376
Old success: 351
New success: 351
total_insns diff min: -27.15%
total_insns diff max: 0.50%
0 -> value: 0
value -> 0: 0
total_insns abs max old: 236,251
total_insns abs max new: 233,669
-30 .. -20 %: 8
-20 .. -10 %: 2
-10 .. 0 %: 21
0 .. 5 %: 345

========= meta: master vs patch-set =========

File Program Insns (A) Insns (B) Insns (DIFF)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- --------- --------- -----------------
...
third-party-scx-backports-6.9-1.0.13.1-scheds-rust-scx_layered-bpf_skel_genskel-bpf.bpf.o layered_dispatch 13944 13104 -840 (-6.02%)
third-party-scx-backports-6.9-1.0.13.2-scheds-rust-scx_layered-bpf_skel_genskel-bpf.bpf.o layered_dispatch 13944 13104 -840 (-6.02%)
third-party-scx-gefe21962f49a-__scx_layered_bpf_skel_genskel-bpf.bpf.o layered_dispatch 13825 12985 -840 (-6.08%)
third-party-scx-v1.0.16-__scx_lavd_bpf_skel_genskel-bpf.bpf.o lavd_enqueue 15501 13602 -1899 (-12.25%)
third-party-scx-v1.0.16-__scx_lavd_bpf_skel_genskel-bpf.bpf.o lavd_select_cpu 19814 16231 -3583 (-18.08%)
third-party-scx-v1.0.17-__scx_lavd_bpf_skel_genskel-bpf.bpf.o lavd_enqueue 15501 13602 -1899 (-12.25%)
third-party-scx-v1.0.17-__scx_lavd_bpf_skel_genskel-bpf.bpf.o lavd_select_cpu 19814 16231 -3583 (-18.08%)
third-party-scx-v1.0.17-__scx_layered_bpf_skel_genskel-bpf.bpf.o layered_dispatch 13976 13151 -825 (-5.90%)
third-party-scx-v1.0.18-__scx_lavd_bpf_skel_genskel-bpf.bpf.o lavd_dispatch 260628 237930 -22698 (-8.71%)
third-party-scx-v1.0.18-__scx_lavd_bpf_skel_genskel-bpf.bpf.o lavd_enqueue 13437 12225 -1212 (-9.02%)
third-party-scx-v1.0.18-__scx_lavd_bpf_skel_genskel-bpf.bpf.o lavd_select_cpu 17744 14730 -3014 (-16.99%)
third-party-scx-v1.0.19-10-6b1958477-__scx_lavd_bpf_skel_genskel-bpf.bpf.o lavd_cpu_offline 19676 18418 -1258 (-6.39%)
third-party-scx-v1.0.19-10-6b1958477-__scx_lavd_bpf_skel_genskel-bpf.bpf.o lavd_cpu_online 19674 18416 -1258 (-6.39%)
...

Total progs: 1540
Old success: 1492
New success: 1493
total_insns diff min: -75.83%
total_insns diff max: 73.60%
0 -> value: 0
value -> 0: 0
total_insns abs max old: 434,763
total_insns abs max new: 666,036
-80 .. -70 %: 2
-55 .. -50 %: 7
-50 .. -45 %: 10
-45 .. -35 %: 4
-35 .. -25 %: 4
-25 .. -20 %: 8
-20 .. -15 %: 15
-15 .. -10 %: 11
-10 .. -5 %: 45
-5 .. 0 %: 112
0 .. 5 %: 1316
5 .. 15 %: 2
15 .. 25 %: 1
25 .. 35 %: 1
55 .. 65 %: 1
70 .. 75 %: 1

========= cilium: master vs patch-set =========

File Program Insns (A) Insns (B) Insns (DIFF)
--------------- --------------------------------- --------- --------- ----------------
bpf_host.o cil_host_policy 45801 32027 -13774 (-30.07%)
bpf_host.o cil_to_netdev 100287 69042 -31245 (-31.16%)
bpf_host.o tail_handle_ipv4_cont_from_host 60911 20962 -39949 (-65.59%)
bpf_host.o tail_handle_ipv4_from_netdev 59735 33155 -26580 (-44.50%)
bpf_host.o tail_handle_ipv6_cont_from_host 23529 17036 -6493 (-27.60%)
bpf_host.o tail_handle_ipv6_from_host 11906 10303 -1603 (-13.46%)
bpf_host.o tail_handle_ipv6_from_netdev 29778 23743 -6035 (-20.27%)
bpf_host.o tail_handle_snat_fwd_ipv4 61616 67463 +5847 (+9.49%)
bpf_host.o tail_handle_snat_fwd_ipv6 30802 22806 -7996 (-25.96%)
bpf_host.o tail_ipv4_host_policy_ingress 20017 10528 -9489 (-47.40%)
bpf_host.o tail_ipv6_host_policy_ingress 20693 17301 -3392 (-16.39%)
bpf_host.o tail_nodeport_nat_egress_ipv4 16455 13684 -2771 (-16.84%)
bpf_host.o tail_nodeport_nat_ingress_ipv4 36174 20080 -16094 (-44.49%)
bpf_host.o tail_nodeport_nat_ingress_ipv6 48039 25779 -22260 (-46.34%)
bpf_lxc.o tail_handle_ipv4 13765 10001 -3764 (-27.34%)
bpf_lxc.o tail_handle_ipv4_cont 96891 68725 -28166 (-29.07%)
bpf_lxc.o tail_handle_ipv6_cont 21809 17697 -4112 (-18.85%)
bpf_lxc.o tail_ipv4_ct_egress 15949 17746 +1797 (+11.27%)
bpf_lxc.o tail_nodeport_nat_egress_ipv4 16183 13432 -2751 (-17.00%)
bpf_lxc.o tail_nodeport_nat_ingress_ipv4 18532 10697 -7835 (-42.28%)
bpf_overlay.o tail_handle_inter_cluster_revsnat 15708 11099 -4609 (-29.34%)
bpf_overlay.o tail_handle_ipv4 105672 76108 -29564 (-27.98%)
bpf_overlay.o tail_handle_ipv6 15733 19944 +4211 (+26.77%)
bpf_overlay.o tail_handle_snat_fwd_ipv4 19327 26468 +7141 (+36.95%)
bpf_overlay.o tail_handle_snat_fwd_ipv6 20817 12556 -8261 (-39.68%)
bpf_overlay.o tail_nodeport_nat_egress_ipv4 16175 12184 -3991 (-24.67%)
bpf_overlay.o tail_nodeport_nat_ingress_ipv4 20760 11951 -8809 (-42.43%)
bpf_wireguard.o tail_handle_ipv4 27466 28909 +1443 (+5.25%)
bpf_wireguard.o tail_nodeport_nat_egress_ipv4 15937 12094 -3843 (-24.11%)
bpf_wireguard.o tail_nodeport_nat_ingress_ipv4 20624 11993 -8631 (-41.85%)
bpf_xdp.o tail_lb_ipv4 42673 60855 +18182 (+42.61%)
bpf_xdp.o tail_lb_ipv6 87903 108585 +20682 (+23.53%)
bpf_xdp.o tail_nodeport_nat_ingress_ipv4 28787 20991 -7796 (-27.08%)
bpf_xdp.o tail_nodeport_nat_ingress_ipv6 207593 152012 -55581 (-26.77%)

Total progs: 134
Old success: 134
New success: 134
total_insns diff min: -65.59%
total_insns diff max: 42.61%
0 -> value: 0
value -> 0: 0
total_insns abs max old: 207,593
total_insns abs max new: 152,012
-70 .. -60 %: 1
-50 .. -40 %: 7
-40 .. -30 %: 9
-30 .. -25 %: 9
-25 .. -20 %: 12
-20 .. -15 %: 7
-15 .. -10 %: 14
-10 .. -5 %: 6
-5 .. 0 %: 16
0 .. 5 %: 42
5 .. 15 %: 5
15 .. 25 %: 2
25 .. 35 %: 2
35 .. 45 %: 2

---
Alexei Starovoitov (5):
bpf: Add spis_*() helpers for 4-byte stack slot bitmasks
selftests/bpf: update existing tests due to liveness changes
selftests/bpf: adjust verifier_log buffers
selftests/bpf: add new tests for static stack liveness analysis
bpf: poison dead stack slots

Eduard Zingerman (8):
bpf: share several utility functions as internal API
bpf: save subprogram name in bpf_subprog_info
bpf: make liveness.c track stack with 4-byte granularity
bpf: 4-byte precise clean_verifier_state
bpf: prepare bpf_liveness api for use by static analysis pass
bpf: introduce forward arg-tracking dataflow analysis
bpf: simplify liveness to use (callsite, depth) keyed func_instances
bpf: change logging scheme for live stack analysis

include/linux/bpf_verifier.h | 64 +-
kernel/bpf/liveness.c | 1997 ++++++++++++++----
kernel/bpf/log.c | 9 +-
kernel/bpf/verifier.c | 276 ++-
.../selftests/bpf/prog_tests/verifier_log.c | 6 +-
.../selftests/bpf/progs/exceptions_assert.c | 6 +-
tools/testing/selftests/bpf/progs/uninit_stack.c | 1 +
tools/testing/selftests/bpf/progs/verifier_align.c | 10 +-
.../selftests/bpf/progs/verifier_div_mod_bounds.c | 18 +-
.../selftests/bpf/progs/verifier_live_stack.c | 2217 +++++++++++++++++++-
.../selftests/bpf/progs/verifier_scalar_ids.c | 26 +-
.../selftests/bpf/progs/verifier_spill_fill.c | 10 +-
.../bpf/progs/verifier_subprog_precision.c | 8 +-
13 files changed, 4025 insertions(+), 623 deletions(-)
---
base-commit: 6a14beefab457f267b8cedc6ac697a9562ec1244
change-id: 20260408-patch-set-29efd8c0f810