CVE-2026-45839
Received Received - Intake
Out-of-Bounds Read in Linux Kernel BPF CO-RE Accessor

Publication date: 2026-05-27

Last updated on: 2026-05-27

Assigner: kernel.org

Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: reject negative CO-RE accessor indices in bpf_core_parse_spec() CO-RE accessor strings are colon-separated indices that describe a path from a root BTF type to a target field, e.g. "0:1:2" walks through nested struct members. bpf_core_parse_spec() parses each component with sscanf("%d"), so negative values like -1 are silently accepted. The subsequent bounds checks (access_idx >= btf_vlen(t)) only guard the upper bound and always pass for negative values because C integer promotion converts the __u16 btf_vlen result to int, making the comparison (int)(-1) >= (int)(N) false for any positive N. When -1 reaches btf_member_bit_offset() it gets cast to u32 0xffffffff, producing an out-of-bounds read far past the members array. A crafted BPF program with a negative CO-RE accessor on any struct that exists in vmlinux BTF (e.g. task_struct) crashes the kernel deterministically during BPF_PROG_LOAD on any system with CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO_BTF=y (default on major distributions). The bug is reachable with CAP_BPF: BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ffffed11818b6626 #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN NOPTI CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 85 Comm: poc Not tainted 7.0.0-rc6 #18 PREEMPT(full) RIP: 0010:bpf_core_parse_spec (tools/lib/bpf/relo_core.c:354) RAX: 00000000ffffffff Call Trace: <TASK> bpf_core_calc_relo_insn (tools/lib/bpf/relo_core.c:1321) bpf_core_apply (kernel/bpf/btf.c:9507) check_core_relo (kernel/bpf/verifier.c:19475) bpf_check (kernel/bpf/verifier.c:26031) bpf_prog_load (kernel/bpf/syscall.c:3089) __sys_bpf (kernel/bpf/syscall.c:6228) </TASK> CO-RE accessor indices are inherently non-negative (struct member index, array element index, or enumerator index), so reject them immediately after parsing.
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Meta Information
Published
2026-05-27
Last Modified
2026-05-27
Generated
2026-05-27
AI Q&A
2026-05-27
EPSS Evaluated
N/A
NVD
CVE-2026-45839
EUVD
EUVD-2026-32165
Affected Vendors & Products
Showing 1 associated CPE
Vendor Product Version / Range
linux linux_kernel 7.0.0-rc6
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
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KEV
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CWE ID Description
CWE-UNKNOWN
Attack-Flow Graph
AI Powered Q&A
Can you explain this vulnerability to me?

This vulnerability exists in the Linux kernel's handling of BPF CO-RE accessor indices. CO-RE accessor strings describe a path to a target field in kernel data structures using colon-separated indices. The function bpf_core_parse_spec() parses these indices but incorrectly accepts negative values like -1.

Because the bounds checks only verify the upper bound and not the lower bound, negative indices bypass these checks. When a negative index is used, it is cast to a large unsigned integer, causing an out-of-bounds read far beyond the intended array.

A crafted BPF program using a negative CO-RE accessor on any struct present in the kernel's BTF data can cause a deterministic kernel crash during BPF program loading on systems with CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO_BTF enabled.


How can this vulnerability impact me? :

This vulnerability can cause a denial of service by crashing the Linux kernel when a malicious BPF program with a negative CO-RE accessor index is loaded.

Since the crash occurs deterministically during BPF_PROG_LOAD, an attacker with CAP_BPF capability can exploit this to disrupt system availability.


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