From: Tristan Madani <tristmd@gmail.com>
To: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>,
Daniel Borkmann <daniel@iogearbox.net>,
Andrii Nakryiko <andrii@kernel.org>
Cc: Xu Kuohai <xukuohai@huawei.com>,
Eduard Zingerman <eddyz87@gmail.com>,
bpf@vger.kernel.org, stable@vger.kernel.org,
Tristan Madani <tristan@talencesecurity.com>
Subject: [PATCH] bpf: Reset register bounds before narrowing retval range in check_mem_access()
Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2026 12:08:15 +0000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260617120815.3910671-1-tristmd@gmail.com> (raw)
From: Tristan Madani <tristan@talencesecurity.com>
When the BPF verifier processes a context load of an LSM hook return
value, it calls __mark_reg_s32_range() to narrow the register to the
hook's valid range. However, __mark_reg_s32_range() intersects the new
range with the register's existing bounds using max_t()/min_t() rather
than replacing them.
If the destination register carries stale bounds from a prior instruction
(e.g. BPF_MOV64_IMM), the intersection can produce a range narrower than
reality. The verifier then believes it knows the register's exact value,
while at runtime the actual hook return value is loaded, creating a
verifier/runtime mismatch that can be used to bypass BPF memory safety
checks.
The else branch already calls mark_reg_unknown() to reset register state
before any narrowing. Apply the same reset in the is_retval path so
stale bounds are cleared before __mark_reg_s32_range() intersects.
Fixes: 5d99e198be27 ("bpf, lsm: Add check for BPF LSM return value")
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Tristan Madani <tristan@talencesecurity.com>
---
kernel/bpf/verifier.c | 1 +
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
diff --git a/kernel/bpf/verifier.c b/kernel/bpf/verifier.c
index 54c6953a8b84..7e30dddc7721 100644
--- a/kernel/bpf/verifier.c
+++ b/kernel/bpf/verifier.c
@@ -7532,6 +7532,7 @@ static int check_mem_access(struct bpf_verifier_env *env, int insn_idx, u32 regn
*/
if (info.reg_type == SCALAR_VALUE) {
if (info.is_retval && get_func_retval_range(env->prog, &range)) {
+ mark_reg_unknown(env, regs, value_regno);
err = __mark_reg_s32_range(env, regs, value_regno,
range.minval, range.maxval);
if (err)
--
2.47.3
next reply other threads:[~2026-06-17 12:08 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 2+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-06-17 12:08 Tristan Madani [this message]
2026-06-19 9:49 ` [PATCH] bpf: Reset register bounds before narrowing retval range in check_mem_access() Jiri Olsa
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