Bug 2541100 (CVE-2026-98085)

Summary: CVE-2026-98085 kernel: bpf: backtrack_insn(): Handle ld_{abs,ind} subprog exit edge
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: akhatavk, aos-team-art-private, asdas, dpaolell, jdelft, jupierce, lgarciaa, mbiarnes, ppalepu, ppostler, prdhamdh, rhel-process-autobot, sghai, sidsharm, suppawar, vlaad, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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Doc Text:
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's Berkeley Packet Filter (BPF) verifier. A local user with permissions to load BPF programs could exploit this vulnerability to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) via a kernel crash or potentially bypass verifier safety checks. This issue occurs because the verifier fails to properly manage subprogram transitions during instruction backtracking, leading to memory faults or improper verification state pruning.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-09-25 10:48:47 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

bpf: backtrack_insn(): Handle ld_{abs,ind} subprog exit edge

Nicholas Carlini reported a bug in precision backtracking mechanism
for BPF_LD | BPF_{IND,ABS} instructions. These instructions are
modelled as two branches:
- fallthrough;
- implicit exit from current subprogram.

The implicit exit case was not handled by the backtrack_insn()
function. When backtracking such a path backtrack_insn() did not
call bt_subprog_enter(), which meant that backtracking continued
manipulating precision marks in a caller frame, while looking at
instructions in a callee frame.

This lead to segmentation faults during verification (see the
selftest), or unsound state pruning.