Local privilege escalation via stale BPF register ID
Published May 5, 2026 · Updated May 5, 2026
Out-of-bounds memory access in the Linux Kernel eBPF verifier allows local users to corrupt or disclose kernel memory via crafted bytecode. In kernel/bpf/verifier.c, BPF_END mutates a scalar but leaves dst_reg->id linked, so later branches copy invalid bounds to its peer. Reachability requires permission to load eBPF programs through bpf(); successful exploitation grants kernel-memory access, enabling privilege escalation or a host crash.
Summary
What happened
Out-of-bounds memory access in the Linux Kernel eBPF verifier allows local users to corrupt or disclose kernel memory via crafted bytecode. In kernel/bpf/verifier.c, BPF_END mutates a scalar but leaves dst_reg->id linked, so later branches copy invalid bounds to its peer. Reachability requires permission to load eBPF programs through bpf(); successful exploitation grants kernel-memory access, enabling privilege escalation or a host crash.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-43070
- Published
- May 5, 2026
- Updated
- May 5, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux Kernel
- Classifications
- CWE-125, T1068
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 5, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 5, 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=4c03342e5ac532fb34d13a7b51dd7261dfc48963 <a17443af874229408ce6b78e2c8a2b5adeb4b7d8
- Affected versionversion=6.18.17 <6.18.21
- Affected versionversion=6.19.7 <6.19.11
- Affected versionversion=9d21199842247ab05c675fb9b6c6ca393a5c0024 <a3125bc01884431d30d731461634c8295b6f0529
- Affected versionversion=d00ce96623a69a100ad79675d0e85fda3c50d89b <0d15c3611a2cc5d08993545d4032055ae10ae2c1
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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