From 7db0a00445f1a40bacfe9b747405c11cb5f10fc9 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Daniel Borkmann Date: Thu, 6 Aug 2026 22:10:42 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] bpf: Reject load-acquire from pointers requiring fault protection A BPF_LOAD_ACQ is not rewritten to a BPF_PROBE_MEM load by the verifier, unlike a regular BPF_LDX, so the JIT emits a plain load with no exception table entry and a fault panics the kernel instead of being handled. Reject the source pointer types that a BPF_LDX would have had that fault protection applied to, i.e. the ones bpf_convert_ctx_accesses() turns into BPF_PROBE_MEM: a bare PTR_TO_BTF_ID, PTR_TO_BTF_ID | PTR_UNTRUSTED, PTR_TO_BTF_ID | MEM_ALLOC | PTR_UNTRUSTED and PTR_TO_MEM | MEM_RDONLY | PTR_UNTRUSTED. This is reachable e.g. by loading ->mm out of a trusted task_struct yields an untrusted pointer to mm_struct, and it is NULL for a kernel thread: [...] SEC("tp_btf/sched_switch") int BPF_PROG(demo, bool preempt, struct task_struct *prev, struct task_struct *next) { struct mm_struct *mm = next->mm; /* untrusted */ out_ldx = (__u64)mm->pgd; /* BPF_LDX */ out_acq = load_acquire(&mm->pgd); /* BPF_LOAD_ACQ */ return 0; } [...] Both dereference the same pointer, but only the BPF_LDX is protected (x86-64 JIT, jump targets shown prog-relative): [...] ; out_ldx = (__u64)mm->pgd; 17: movq $-10485760, %r10 1e: movq %rsi, %r11 21: addq $184, %r11 28: subq %r10, %r11 2b: movabsq $140737498841088, %r10 35: cmpq %r10, %r11 38: ja 0x3e <-- kernel addr? 3a: xorl %edi, %edi <-- no: dst = 0, skip the load 3c: jmp 0x45 3e: movq 184(%rsi), %rdi <-- yes: load + extable entry [...] ; load_acquire(&mm->pgd) 53: movq %rsi, %rdi 56: movq 184(%rdi), %rax <-- no check, no extable entry [...] Note that BPF_PROBE_MEM is not visible in a bpftool xlated dump, as bpf_insn_prepare_dump() rewrites it back to BPF_MEM. A PTR_TRUSTED pointer is deliberately not on the list. Such a load is not converted either, but it does not need to be, since the pointer is guaranteed live, so load-acquire from it stays allowed. The check is gated on BPF_LOAD_ACQ so that atomic RMW and store-release error messages are unchanged; writes (RMW / store-release) to such pointers are already rejected elsewhere, so only load-acquire needs this. Fixes: 880442305a39 ("bpf: Introduce load-acquire and store-release instructions") Reported-by: STAR Labs SG Signed-off-by: Daniel Borkmann Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20260806201047.333389-1-daniel@iogearbox.net Signed-off-by: Kumar Kartikeya Dwivedi --- kernel/bpf/verifier.c | 27 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++- 1 file changed, 26 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/kernel/bpf/verifier.c b/kernel/bpf/verifier.c index e6233c0081d1..648c5784178e 100644 --- a/kernel/bpf/verifier.c +++ b/kernel/bpf/verifier.c @@ -4923,6 +4923,30 @@ static bool is_arena_reg(struct bpf_verifier_env *env, int regno) return reg->type == PTR_TO_ARENA; } +static bool is_load_acq_unsafe(struct bpf_verifier_env *env, int regno, + struct bpf_insn *insn) +{ + const struct bpf_reg_state *reg = reg_state(env, regno); + + /* + * A BPF_LOAD_ACQ is not rewritten to a BPF_PROBE_MEM load by the + * verifier, unlike a regular BPF_LDX. The JIT would emit a plain load + * with no exception table entry, so a fault (e.g. NULL deref) crashes + * the kernel instead of being handled. + * + * Reject the source pointer types that a BPF_LDX would have had that + * fault protection applied to, i.e. the ones bpf_convert_ctx_accesses() + * turns into BPF_PROBE_MEM: a bare PTR_TO_BTF_ID and any PTR_UNTRUSTED + * pointer (untrusted btf ids, untrusted MEM_ALLOC, rdonly untrusted + * memory). A PTR_TRUSTED pointer is not among them, is not converted, + * and stays allowed. Same for the other flagged PTR_TO_BTF_ID variants + * (MEM_ALLOC, MEM_RCU, ...), hence the exact match on the base type. + */ + return insn->imm == BPF_LOAD_ACQ && + (reg->type == PTR_TO_BTF_ID || + (type_flag(reg->type) & PTR_UNTRUSTED)); +} + /* Return false if @regno contains a pointer whose type isn't supported for * atomic instruction @insn. */ @@ -4939,7 +4963,8 @@ static bool atomic_ptr_type_ok(struct bpf_verifier_env *env, int regno, return false; if (is_arena_reg(env, regno)) return bpf_jit_supports_insn(insn, true); - + if (is_load_acq_unsafe(env, regno, insn)) + return false; return true; }