CVE-2026-98043

bpf: Don't infer non-NULL from a pointer with an unbounded offset

CVE-2026-98043 is fixed in linux on 1 platform, first by DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98043, released October 2, 2026. It is not reported as exploited. Patch Radar priority: Routine.

Routine
CVSS
5.5
Moderate
Exploitation
None reported
No vendor assessment
CISA KEV
Not listed
Not in the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
EPSS
0.0020
9th percentile

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: Don't infer non-NULL from a pointer with an unbounded offset reg_not_null() decides that a register holds a non-NULL value by looking at its type alone. For pointer types that allow arithmetic the type only guarantees a non-NULL base, in case of an unbound offset the runtime offset value might still add up to NULL. Consider the followng program: r6 = bpf_map_lookup_elem(map, &0); /* present */ if (r6 == 0) return 0; r7 = bpf_map_lookup_elem(map, &1); /* absent, NULL at runtime */ r8 = r7; r8 -= r6; /* pointer - pointer: unknown scalar, -r6 */ r8 <<= 1; r8 >>= 1; /* any non-negative offset is accepted by */ /* check_reg_sane_offset_ptr() */ r6 += r8; /* verifier: map value; runtime: zero */ if (r7 != r6) return 0; *(u8 *)(r7 + 0); /* r7 is inferred non-NULL, both are zero */ At runtime both registers are zero, the comparison is true and the load faults with NULL pointer dereference. Require the offset to be within +-BPF_MAX_VAR_OFF in reg_not_null().

Where it's fixed

ProductFixed inFixReleased
Linux
linux · Debian 13.5 (trixie) 6.12.115-2 DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98043 Oct 2, 2026
linux · Debian 14 7.2.7-1 DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98043 Oct 2, 2026

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