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CVE-2024-49861: bpf: Fix helper writes to read-only maps
- Severity: high (CVSS 7.1 v3.1)
- Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
- EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
- Public exploit or detection template: none known
- Published: 2024-10-21 · updated 2026-08-04
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: Fix helper writes to read-only maps Lonial found an issue that despite user- and BPF-side frozen BPF map (like in case of .rodata), it was still possible to write into it from a BPF program side through specific helpers having ARG_PTR_TO_{LONG,INT} as arguments. In check_func_arg() when the argument is as mentioned, the meta->raw_mode is never set. Later, check_helper_mem_access(), under the case of PTR_TO_MAP_VALUE as register base type, it assumes BPF_READ for the subsequent call to check_map_access_type() and given the BPF map is read-only it succeeds. The helpers really need to be annotated as ARG_PTR_TO_{LONG,INT} | MEM_UNINIT when results are written into them as opposed to read out of them. The latter indicates that it's okay to pass a pointer to uninitialized memory as the memory is written to anyway. However, ARG_PTR_TO_{LONG,INT} is a special case of ARG_PTR_TO_FIXED_SIZE_MEM just with additional alignment requirement. So it is better to just get rid of the ARG_PTR_TO_{LONG,INT} special cases altogether and reuse the fixed size memory types. For this, add MEM_ALIGNED to additionally ensure alignment given these helpers write directly into the args via *<ptr> = val. The .arg*_size has been initialized reflecting the actual sizeof(*<ptr>). MEM_ALIGNED can only be used in combination with MEM_FIXED_SIZE annotated argument types, since in !MEM_FIXED_SIZE cases the verifier does not know the buffer size a priori and therefore cannot blindly write *<ptr> = val.
Affected products
- Linux kernel: from 5.2 before 6.6.54; from 6.7 before 6.10.13; from 6.11 before 6.11.2 — fixed in 6.10.13, 6.11.2, 6.6.54
How to fix
Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 6.10.13, 6.11.2, 6.6.54. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.
References
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1e75d25133158b525e0456876e9bcfd6b2993fd5
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2ed98ee02d1e08afee88f54baec39ea78dc8a23c
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/32556ce93bc45c730829083cb60f95a2728ea48b
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/988e55abcf7fdb8fc9a76a7cf3f4e939a4d4fb3a
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a2c8dc7e21803257e762b0bf067fd13e9c995da0
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/03/msg00001.html
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