Local denial of service via BPF verifier leak
Published May 1, 2025 · Updated May 11, 2026
Memory leakage in the BPF verifier in Linux 5.14 through 6.0.8 allows local users to exhaust kernel memory through BPF program loads. The realloc_array helper overwrites the saved allocation pointer when krealloc returns NULL, leaving the original stack-state array unreachable instead of freeing it. Exploitation requires local low-privileged access and repeated verifier allocation failures; the bounded impact is memory exhaustion and service interruption.
Summary
What happened
Memory leakage in the BPF verifier in Linux 5.14 through 6.0.8 allows local users to exhaust kernel memory through BPF program loads. The realloc_array helper overwrites the saved allocation pointer when krealloc returns NULL, leaving the original stack-state array unreachable instead of freeing it. Exploitation requires local low-privileged access and repeated verifier allocation failures; the bounded impact is memory exhaustion and service interruption.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2022-49878
- Published
- May 1, 2025
- Updated
- May 11, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-401, T1499
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 1, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 11, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=5.14
- Affected versionversion=c69431aab67a912836e5831f03d99a819c14c9c3 <06615967d4889b08b19ff3dda96e8b131282f73d
- Affected versionversion=c69431aab67a912836e5831f03d99a819c14c9c3 <3e210891c4a4c2d858cd6f9f61d5809af251d4df
- Affected versionversion=c69431aab67a912836e5831f03d99a819c14c9c3 <42378a9ca55347102bbf86708776061d8fe3ece2
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
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Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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