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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2024-43837 json

bpf: Fix null pointer dereference in resolve_prog_type() for BPF_PROG_TYPE_EXT

published 2024-08-17 2 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2024-40487

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 11%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

bpf: Fix null pointer dereference in resolve_prog_type() for BPF_PROG_TYPE_EXT

When loading a EXT program without specifying `attr->attach_prog_fd`, the `prog->aux->dst_prog` will be null. At this time, calling resolve_prog_type() anywhere will result in a null pointer dereference.

Example stack trace:

[ 8.107863] Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000004 [ 8.108262] Mem abort info: [ 8.108384] ESR = 0x0000000096000004 [ 8.108547] EC = 0x25: DABT (current EL), IL = 32 bits [ 8.108722] SET = 0, FnV = 0 [ 8.108827] EA = 0, S1PTW = 0 [ 8.108939] FSC = 0x04: level 0 translation fault [ 8.109102] Data abort info: [ 8.109203] ISV = 0, ISS = 0x00000004, ISS2 = 0x00000000 [ 8.109399] CM = 0, WnR = 0, TnD = 0, TagAccess = 0 [ 8.109614] GCS = 0, Overlay = 0, DirtyBit = 0, Xs = 0 [ 8.109836] user pgtable: 4k pages, 48-bit VAs, pgdp=0000000101354000 [ 8.110011] [0000000000000004] pgd=0000000000000000, p4d=0000000000000000 [ 8.112624] Internal error: Oops: 0000000096000004 [#1] PREEMPT SMP [ 8.112783] Modules linked in: [ 8.113120] CPU: 0 PID: 99 Comm: may_access_dire Not tainted 6.10.0-rc3-next-20240613-dirty #1 [ 8.113230] Hardware name: linux,dummy-virt (DT) [ 8.113390] pstate: 60000005 (nZCv daif -PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) [ 8.113429] pc : may_access_direct_pkt_data+0x24/0xa0 [ 8.113746] lr : add_subprog_and_kfunc+0x634/0x8e8 [ 8.113798] sp : ffff80008283b9f0 [ 8.113813] x29: ffff80008283b9f0 x28: ffff800082795048 x27: 0000000000000001 [ 8.113881] x26: ffff0000c0bb2600 x25: 0000000000000000 x24: 0000000000000000 [ 8.113897] x23: ffff0000c1134000 x22: 000000000001864f x21: ffff0000c1138000 [ 8.113912] x20: 0000000000000001 x19: ffff0000c12b8000 x18: ffffffffffffffff [ 8.113929] x17: 0000000000000000 x16: 0000000000000000 x15: 0720072007200720 [ 8.113944] x14: 0720072007200720 x13: 0720072007200720 x12: 0720072007200720 [ 8.113958] x11: 0720072007200720 x10: 0000000000f9fca4 x9 : ffff80008021f4e4 [ 8.113991] x8 : 0101010101010101 x7 : 746f72705f6d656d x6 : 000000001e0e0f5f [ 8.114006] x5 : 000000000001864f x4 : ffff0000c12b8000 x3 : 000000000000001c [ 8.114020] x2 : 0000000000000002 x1 : 0000000000000000 x0 : 0000000000000000 [ 8.114126] Call trace: [ 8.114159] may_access_direct_pkt_data+0x24/0xa0 [ 8.114202] bpf_check+0x3bc/0x28c0 [ 8.114214] bpf_prog_load+0x658/0xa58 [ 8.114227] __sys_bpf+0xc50/0x2250 [ 8.114240] __arm64_sys_bpf+0x28/0x40 [ 8.114254] invoke_syscall.constprop.0+0x54/0xf0 [ 8.114273] do_el0_svc+0x4c/0xd8 [ 8.114289] el0_svc+0x3c/0x140 [ 8.114305] el0t_64_sync_handler+0x134/0x150 [ 8.114331] el0t_64_sync+0x168/0x170 [ 8.114477] Code: 7100707f 54000081 f9401c00 f9403800 (b9400403) [ 8.118672] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---

One way to fix it is by forcing `attach_prog_fd` non-empty when bpf_prog_load(). But this will lead to `libbpf_probe_bpf_prog_type` API broken which use verifier log to probe prog type and will log nothing if we reject invalid EXT prog before bpf_check().

Another way is by adding null check in resolve_prog_type().

The issue was introduced by commit 4a9c7bbe2ed4 ("bpf: Resolve to prog->aux->dst_prog->type only for BPF_PROG_TYPE_EXT") which wanted to correct type resolution for BPF_PROG_TYPE_TRACING programs. Before that, the type resolution of BPF_PROG_TYPE_EXT prog actually follows the logic below:

prog->aux->dst_prog ? prog->aux->dst_prog->type : prog->type;

It implies that when EXT program is not yet attached to `dst_prog`, the prog type should be EXT itself. This code worked fine in the past. So just keep using it.

Fix this by returning `prog->type` for BPF_PROG_TYPE_EXT if `dst_prog` is not present in resolve_prog_type().

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 6.1.103, 6.6.44, 6.10.3, 6.11
  • linux Debian 12 6.1.106-1
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13 6.10.3-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2024-43837

  • linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-50.51
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1020.22
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1019.21
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1015.19
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1017.17
  • linux-azure Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1020.23
  • linux-gkeop Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1002.4
  • linux-raspi Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1016.18

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2024-43837

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel-rt Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-10.1
  • kernel-source-rt Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-10.1
  • kernel-livepatch-MICRO-6-0-RT_Update_2 Linux Micro 6.0 1-1.1
  • kernel-source Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-19.1
  • kernel-default Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-19.1
  • kernel-kvmsmall Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-19.1
  • kernel-default-base Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-17.1.1.51
  • kernel-livepatch-MICRO-6-0_Update_2 Linux Micro 6.0 1-1.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2025:20047-1SUSE-SU-2025:20044-1SUSE-SU-2024:3483-1SUSE-SU-2024:3383-1SUSE-SU-2024:3209-1SUSE-SU-2024:3195-1

  • kernel Azure Linux 3.0 6.6.47.1-1

azure linux advisories AZL-48009

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2024-43837 updated cvss 5.5

kernel: bpf: Fix null pointer dereference in resolve_prog_type() for BPF_PROG_TYPE_EXT

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
2 y ago

Exploit prediction

0.21% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 11% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Weakness
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.