Bug 2464430 (CVE-2026-43009)

Summary: CVE-2026-43009 kernel: bpf: Fix incorrect pruning due to atomic fetch precision tracking
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's BPF (Berkeley Packet Filter) verifier. The verifier, responsible for ensuring the safety of BPF programs, incorrectly tracks the precision of atomic fetch operations. This error can lead to the verifier pruning execution paths that should not be considered equivalent, potentially allowing BPF programs to bypass intended security checks or behave unexpectedly.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-05-01 15:06:24 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

bpf: Fix incorrect pruning due to atomic fetch precision tracking

When backtrack_insn encounters a BPF_STX instruction with BPF_ATOMIC
and BPF_FETCH, the src register (or r0 for BPF_CMPXCHG) also acts as
a destination, thus receiving the old value from the memory location.

The current backtracking logic does not account for this. It treats
atomic fetch operations the same as regular stores where the src
register is only an input. This leads the backtrack_insn to fail to
propagate precision to the stack location, which is then not marked
as precise!

Later, the verifier's path pruning can incorrectly consider two states
equivalent when they differ in terms of stack state. Meaning, two
branches can be treated as equivalent and thus get pruned when they
should not be seen as such.

Fix it as follows: Extend the BPF_LDX handling in backtrack_insn to
also cover atomic fetch operations via is_atomic_fetch_insn() helper.
When the fetch dst register is being tracked for precision, clear it,
and propagate precision over to the stack slot. For non-stack memory,
the precision walk stops at the atomic instruction, same as regular
BPF_LDX. This covers all fetch variants.

Before:

  0: (b7) r1 = 8                        ; R1=8
  1: (7b) *(u64 *)(r10 -8) = r1         ; R1=8 R10=fp0 fp-8=8
  2: (b7) r2 = 0                        ; R2=0
  3: (db) r2 = atomic64_fetch_add((u64 *)(r10 -8), r2)          ; R2=8 R10=fp0 fp-8=mmmmmmmm
  4: (bf) r3 = r10                      ; R3=fp0 R10=fp0
  5: (0f) r3 += r2
  mark_precise: frame0: last_idx 5 first_idx 0 subseq_idx -1
  mark_precise: frame0: regs=r2 stack= before 4: (bf) r3 = r10
  mark_precise: frame0: regs=r2 stack= before 3: (db) r2 = atomic64_fetch_add((u64 *)(r10 -8), r2)
  mark_precise: frame0: regs=r2 stack= before 2: (b7) r2 = 0
  6: R2=8 R3=fp8
  6: (b7) r0 = 0                        ; R0=0
  7: (95) exit

After:

  0: (b7) r1 = 8                        ; R1=8
  1: (7b) *(u64 *)(r10 -8) = r1         ; R1=8 R10=fp0 fp-8=8
  2: (b7) r2 = 0                        ; R2=0
  3: (db) r2 = atomic64_fetch_add((u64 *)(r10 -8), r2)          ; R2=8 R10=fp0 fp-8=mmmmmmmm
  4: (bf) r3 = r10                      ; R3=fp0 R10=fp0
  5: (0f) r3 += r2
  mark_precise: frame0: last_idx 5 first_idx 0 subseq_idx -1
  mark_precise: frame0: regs=r2 stack= before 4: (bf) r3 = r10
  mark_precise: frame0: regs=r2 stack= before 3: (db) r2 = atomic64_fetch_add((u64 *)(r10 -8), r2)
  mark_precise: frame0: regs= stack=-8 before 2: (b7) r2 = 0
  mark_precise: frame0: regs= stack=-8 before 1: (7b) *(u64 *)(r10 -8) = r1
  mark_precise: frame0: regs=r1 stack= before 0: (b7) r1 = 8
  6: R2=8 R3=fp8
  6: (b7) r0 = 0                        ; R0=0
  7: (95) exit