{"id":"CVE-2021-47608","state":"PUBLISHED","title":"bpf: Fix kernel address leakage in atomic fetch","description":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nbpf: Fix kernel address leakage in atomic fetch\n\nThe change in commit 37086bfdc737 (\"bpf: Propagate stack bounds to registers\nin atomics w/ BPF_FETCH\") around check_mem_access() handling is buggy since\nthis would allow for unprivileged users to leak kernel pointers. For example,\nan atomic fetch/and with -1 on a stack destination which holds a spilled\npointer will migrate the spilled register type into a scalar, which can then\nbe exported out of the program (since scalar != pointer) by dumping it into\na map value.\n\nThe original implementation of XADD was preventing this situation by using\na double call to check_mem_access() one with BPF_READ and a subsequent one\nwith BPF_WRITE, in both cases passing -1 as a placeholder value instead of\nregister as per XADD semantics since it didn't contain a value fetch. The\nBPF_READ also included a check in check_stack_read_fixed_off() which rejects\nthe program if the stack slot is of __is_pointer_value() if dst_regno < 0.\nThe latter is to distinguish whether we're dealing with a regular stack spill/\nfill or some arithmetical operation which is disallowed on non-scalars, see\nalso 6e7e63cbb023 (\"bpf: Forbid XADD on spilled pointers for unprivileged\nusers\") for more context on check_mem_access() and its handling of placeholder\nvalue -1.\n\nOne minimally intrusive option to fix the leak is for the BPF_FETCH case to\ninitially check the BPF_READ case via check_mem_access() with -1 as register,\nfollowed by the actual load case with non-negative load_reg to propagate\nstack bounds to registers.","publishedAt":"2024-06-19T14:54:06.388Z","updatedAt":"2026-05-11T13:57:50.154Z","severity":null,"assigner":"Linux","products":["Linux Linux"],"affected":[{"vendor":"Linux","product":"Linux","defaultStatus":"unaffected","versions":[{"version":"37086bfdc737ea6f66bf68dcf16757004d68e1e1","status":"affected","lessThan":"423628125a484538111c2c6d9bb1588eb086053b","versionType":"git"},{"version":"37086bfdc737ea6f66bf68dcf16757004d68e1e1","status":"affected","lessThan":"7d3baf0afa3aa9102d6a521a8e4c41888bb79882","versionType":"git"}],"repo":"https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git","programFiles":["kernel/bpf/verifier.c"]},{"vendor":"Linux","product":"Linux","defaultStatus":"affected","versions":[{"version":"5.12","status":"affected"},{"version":"0","status":"unaffected","lessThan":"5.12","versionType":"semver"},{"version":"5.15.11","status":"unaffected","lessThanOrEqual":"5.15.*","versionType":"semver"},{"version":"5.16","status":"unaffected","lessThanOrEqual":"*","versionType":"original_commit_for_fix"}],"repo":"https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git","programFiles":["kernel/bpf/verifier.c"]}],"references":["https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/423628125a484538111c2c6d9bb1588eb086053b","https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7d3baf0afa3aa9102d6a521a8e4c41888bb79882"],"weaknesses":[],"ingestedAt":"2026-10-29T19:49:19.404Z","source":{"repository":"CVEProject/cvelistV5","path":"cves/2021/47xxx/CVE-2021-47608.json","commit":"556c9d3a8cd17e218bb8e452ba7cd619a384ff47"},"raw":{"dataType":"CVE_RECORD","dataVersion":"5.2","cveMetadata":{"cveId":"CVE-2021-47608","state":"PUBLISHED","datePublished":"2024-06-19T14:54:06.388Z","dateUpdated":"2026-05-11T13:57:50.154Z","assignerShortName":"Linux","assignerOrgId":"416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67","dateReserved":"2024-05-24T15:11:00.737Z"},"containers":{"cna":{"title":"bpf: Fix kernel address leakage in atomic fetch","descriptions":[{"lang":"en","value":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nbpf: Fix kernel address leakage in atomic fetch\n\nThe change in commit 37086bfdc737 (\"bpf: Propagate stack bounds to registers\nin atomics w/ BPF_FETCH\") around check_mem_access() handling is buggy since\nthis would allow for unprivileged users to leak kernel pointers. For example,\nan atomic fetch/and with -1 on a stack destination which holds a spilled\npointer will migrate the spilled register type into a scalar, which can then\nbe exported out of the program (since scalar != pointer) by dumping it into\na map value.\n\nThe original implementation of XADD was preventing this situation by using\na double call to check_mem_access() one with BPF_READ and a subsequent one\nwith BPF_WRITE, in both cases passing -1 as a placeholder value instead of\nregister as per XADD semantics since it didn't contain a value fetch. The\nBPF_READ also included a check in check_stack_read_fixed_off() which rejects\nthe program if the stack slot is of __is_pointer_value() if dst_regno < 0.\nThe latter is to distinguish whether we're dealing with a regular stack spill/\nfill or some arithmetical operation which is disallowed on non-scalars, see\nalso 6e7e63cbb023 (\"bpf: Forbid XADD on spilled pointers for unprivileged\nusers\") for more context on check_mem_access() and its handling of placeholder\nvalue -1.\n\nOne minimally intrusive option to fix the leak is for the BPF_FETCH case to\ninitially check the BPF_READ case via check_mem_access() with -1 as register,\nfollowed by the actual load case with non-negative load_reg to propagate\nstack bounds to registers."}],"affected":[{"vendor":"Linux","product":"Linux","defaultStatus":"unaffected","versions":[{"version":"37086bfdc737ea6f66bf68dcf16757004d68e1e1","status":"affected","lessThan":"423628125a484538111c2c6d9bb1588eb086053b","versionType":"git"},{"version":"37086bfdc737ea6f66bf68dcf16757004d68e1e1","status":"affected","lessThan":"7d3baf0afa3aa9102d6a521a8e4c41888bb79882","versionType":"git"}],"repo":"https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git","programFiles":["kernel/bpf/verifier.c"]},{"vendor":"Linux","product":"Linux","defaultStatus":"affected","versions":[{"version":"5.12","status":"affected"},{"version":"0","status":"unaffected","lessThan":"5.12","versionType":"semver"},{"version":"5.15.11","status":"unaffected","lessThanOrEqual":"5.15.*","versionType":"semver"},{"version":"5.16","status":"unaffected","lessThanOrEqual":"*","versionType":"original_commit_for_fix"}],"repo":"https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git","programFiles":["kernel/bpf/verifier.c"]}],"references":[{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/423628125a484538111c2c6d9bb1588eb086053b"},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7d3baf0afa3aa9102d6a521a8e4c41888bb79882"}],"providerMetadata":{"shortName":"Linux","orgId":"416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67","dateUpdated":"2026-05-11T13:57:50.154Z"},"cpeApplicability":[{"nodes":[{"operator":"OR","negate":false,"cpeMatch":[{"vulnerable":true,"criteria":"cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*","versionStartIncluding":"5.12","versionEndExcluding":"5.15.11"},{"vulnerable":true,"criteria":"cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*","versionStartIncluding":"5.12","versionEndExcluding":"5.16"}]}]}],"x_generator":{"engine":"bippy-1.2.0"}},"adp":[{"title":"CVE Program Container","references":[{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/423628125a484538111c2c6d9bb1588eb086053b","tags":["x_transferred"]},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7d3baf0afa3aa9102d6a521a8e4c41888bb79882","tags":["x_transferred"]}],"providerMetadata":{"shortName":"CVE","orgId":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108","dateUpdated":"2024-08-04T05:47:40.335Z"}},{"title":"CISA ADP Vulnrichment","metrics":[{"other":{"type":"ssvc","content":{"id":"CVE-2021-47608","role":"CISA Coordinator","options":[{"Exploitation":"none"},{"Automatable":"no"},{"Technical Impact":"partial"}],"version":"2.0.3","timestamp":"2024-09-10T17:12:01.674313Z"}}}],"providerMetadata":{"shortName":"CISA-ADP","orgId":"134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0","dateUpdated":"2024-09-11T17:34:51.223Z"}}]}}}