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High · 7.8 CVE-2024-50164 EUVD-2024-44666GHSA-h38j-rxrv-q3q6

bpf: Fix overloading of MEM_UNINIT's meaning

Published Nov 7, 2024 · Updated Nov 10, 2026 · Assigned by Linux

Vendor: Linux Product: Linux Package: kernel Package: linux Package: linux Package: linux-allwinner-5.19 Package: linux-aws Package: linux-aws-5.0 Package: linux-aws-5.11 Package: linux-aws-5.13 Package: linux-aws-5.15 Package: linux-aws-5.19 Package: linux-aws-5.3 Package: linux-aws-5.8 Package: linux-aws-6.2 Package: linux-aws-6.5 Package: linux-aws-6.8 Package: linux-aws-fips Package: linux-azure Package: linux-azure-5.11 Package: linux-azure-5.13 Package: linux-azure-5.15 Package: linux-azure-5.19 Package: linux-azure-5.3 Package: linux-azure-5.8 Package: linux-azure-6.11 Package: linux-azure-6.2 Package: linux-azure-6.5 Package: linux-azure-6.8 Package: linux-azure-edge Package: linux-azure-fde Package: linux-azure-fde-5.15 Package: linux-azure-fde-5.19 Package: linux-azure-fde-6.2 Package: linux-azure-fips Package: linux-azure-nvidia Package: linux-bluefield Package: linux-fips Package: linux-gcp Package: linux-gcp-5.11 Package: linux-gcp-5.13 Package: linux-gcp-5.15 Package: linux-gcp-5.19 Package: linux-gcp-5.3 Package: linux-gcp-5.8 Package: linux-gcp-6.11 Package: linux-gcp-6.2 Package: linux-gcp-6.5 Package: linux-gcp-6.8 Package: linux-gcp-fips Package: linux-gke Package: linux-gke-4.15 Package: linux-gke-5.15 Package: linux-gke-5.4 Package: linux-gkeop Package: linux-gkeop-5.15 Package: linux-gkeop-5.4 Package: linux-hwe Package: linux-hwe-5.11 Package: linux-hwe-5.13 Package: linux-hwe-5.15 Package: linux-hwe-5.19 Package: linux-hwe-5.8 Package: linux-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-hwe-6.5 Package: linux-hwe-6.8 Package: linux-hwe-edge Package: linux-ibm Package: linux-ibm-5.15 Package: linux-ibm-6.8 Package: linux-intel-5.13 Package: linux-intel-iot-realtime Package: linux-intel-iotg Package: linux-intel-iotg-5.15 Package: linux-kvm Package: linux-lowlatency Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.15 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.8 Package: linux-nvidia Package: linux-nvidia-6.11 Package: linux-nvidia-6.2 Package: linux-nvidia-6.5 Package: linux-nvidia-6.8 Package: linux-nvidia-lowlatency Package: linux-nvidia-tegra Package: linux-nvidia-tegra-5.15 Package: linux-nvidia-tegra-igx Package: linux-oem Package: linux-oem-5.10 Package: linux-oem-5.13 Package: linux-oem-5.14 Package: linux-oem-5.17 Package: linux-oem-5.6 Package: linux-oem-6.0 Package: linux-oem-6.1 Package: linux-oem-6.11 Package: linux-oem-6.5 Package: linux-oem-6.8 Package: linux-oracle Package: linux-oracle-5.0 Package: linux-oracle-5.11 Package: linux-oracle-5.13 Package: linux-oracle-5.15 Package: linux-oracle-5.3 Package: linux-oracle-5.8 Package: linux-oracle-6.5 Package: linux-oracle-6.8 Package: linux-raspi Package: linux-raspi-realtime Package: linux-raspi2 Package: linux-realtime Package: linux-realtime-6.8 Package: linux-riscv Package: linux-riscv-5.11 Package: linux-riscv-5.15 Package: linux-riscv-5.19 Package: linux-riscv-5.8 Package: linux-riscv-6.5 Package: linux-riscv-6.8 Package: linux-starfive-5.19 Package: linux-starfive-6.2 Package: linux-starfive-6.5 Package: linux-vmware Package: linux-xilinx Package: linux-xilinx-zynqmp Platform: Linux Ecosystem: Azure Linux Ecosystem: Debian Ecosystem: Ubuntu

Description

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

bpf: Fix overloading of MEM_UNINIT's meaning

Lonial reported an issue in the BPF verifier where check_mem_size_reg()
has the following code:

if (!tnum_is_const(reg->var_off))
/* For unprivileged variable accesses, disable raw
* mode so that the program is required to
* initialize all the memory that the helper could
* just partially fill up.
*/
meta = NULL;

This means that writes are not checked when the register containing the
size of the passed buffer has not a fixed size. Through this bug, a BPF
program can write to a map which is marked as read-only, for example,
.rodata global maps.

The problem is that MEM_UNINIT's initial meaning that "the passed buffer
to the BPF helper does not need to be initialized" which was added back
in commit 435faee1aae9 ("bpf, verifier: add ARG_PTR_TO_RAW_STACK type")
got overloaded over time with "the passed buffer is being written to".

The problem however is that checks such as the above which were added later
via 06c1c049721a ("bpf: allow helpers access to variable memory") set meta
to NULL in order force the user to always initialize the passed buffer to
the helper. Due to the current double meaning of MEM_UNINIT, this bypasses
verifier write checks to the memory (not boundary checks though) and only
assumes the latter memory is read instead.

Fix this by reverting MEM_UNINIT back to its original meaning, and having
MEM_WRITE as an annotation to BPF helpers in order to then trigger the
BPF verifier checks for writing to memory.

Some notes: check_arg_pair_ok() ensures that for ARG_CONST_SIZE{,_OR_ZERO}
we can access fn->arg_type[arg - 1] since it must contain a preceding
ARG_PTR_TO_MEM. For check_mem_reg() the meta argument can be removed
altogether since we do check both BPF_READ and BPF_WRITE. Same for the
equivalent check_kfunc_mem_size_reg().

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
Linux Linux 5.15.45 – < 5.16, 5.17.13 – < 5.18, 5.18.2 – < 5.19, 5.19 5.16

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 linux 6.11.6-1 —
Debian 13 linux 6.11.6-1 —
Debian 12 linux 6.1.128-1 DSA-5860-1
Debian 11 linux-6.1 6.1.128-1~deb11u1 DLA-4076-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu Nvidia-BlueField 22.04 LTS linux-bluefield No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux 6.8.0-58.60 USN-7449-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-aws 6.8.0-1027.29 USN-7449-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-azure 6.8.0-1027.32 USN-7449-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-azure-6.11 6.11.0-1012.12~24.04.1 —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-azure-nvidia 6.8.0-1014.15 USN-7468-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-gcp 6.8.0-1028.30 USN-7450-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-gcp-6.11 6.11.0-1011.11~24.04.1 —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-gke 6.8.0-1023.27 USN-7450-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-gkeop 6.8.0-1010.12 USN-7450-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-ibm 6.8.0-1024.24 USN-7449-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-nvidia 6.8.0-1026.29 USN-7449-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-nvidia-6.11 6.11.0-1007.7 —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-nvidia-lowlatency 6.8.0-1026.29.1 USN-7449-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-nvidia-tegra 6.8.0-1008.8 —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-oem-6.11 6.11.0-1015.15 USN-7310-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-oem-6.8 6.8.0-1026.26 USN-7449-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-oracle 6.8.0-1024.25 USN-7449-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-raspi 6.8.0-1028.32 USN-7524-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-realtime +1 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-riscv +1 6.8.0-58.60.1 USN-7449-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-xilinx 6.8.0-1017.18 —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux +49 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-aws-6.8 6.8.0-1027.29~22.04.1 USN-7451-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-azure-6.8 6.8.0-1027.32~22.04.1 USN-7449-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-gcp-6.8 6.8.0-1028.30~22.04.1 USN-7452-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-hwe-6.8 6.8.0-58.60~22.04.1 USN-7449-2
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-ibm-6.8 6.8.0-1024.24~22.04.1 —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-nvidia-6.8 6.8.0-1026.29~22.04.1 USN-7449-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-oracle-6.8 6.8.0-1024.25~22.04.1 USN-7449-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-riscv-6.8 +1 6.8.0-58.60.1~22.04.1 USN-7449-1
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS linux-gke +27 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS linux-gcp +13 No fix yet —
Show 7 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS linux-hwe-edge No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 24.04 LTS linux-raspi-realtime 6.8.0-2023.24 USN-7523-1
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 24.04 LTS linux-realtime 6.8.1-1020.21 USN-7453-1
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 22.04 LTS linux-realtime +1 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 22.04 LTS linux-realtime-6.8 6.8.1-1020.21~22.04.1 —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 24.04 LTS linux-fips 6.8.0-78.78+fips1 —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 22.04 LTS linux-fips +3 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-preview 22.04 LTS linux-fips +3 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS linux-aws-5.15 +10 No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
openSUSE Tumbleweed kernel-source 6.11.8-1.1 openSUSE-SU-2024:14500-1
openSUSE Tumbleweed kernel-source-longterm 6.12.11-1.1 openSUSE-SU-2025:14705-1

Amazon Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Amazon Linux 2023 kernel-livepatch-6.1.127-135.201 1.0-0.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2025-823
Amazon Linux 2023 perf +14 6.1.127-135.201.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2025-823

Azure Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Azure Linux 3 kernel 6.6.64.2-1 —

Advisories 20

References