CVE-2026-98151

/// Technical description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

bpf: Fix REG INVARIANTS VIOLATION on speculative pointer arithmetic

Take the following unprivileged program as an example:

r0 = bpf_map_lookup_elem(...) /* PTR_TO_MAP_VALUE, offset 0 */

...

14: r0 += r1 /* r1 is a bounded scalar */

15: r9 = r0

Loading it triggers a verifier warning from reg_bounds_sanity_check():

verifier bug: REG INVARIANTS VIOLATION (alu): const subreg tnum out

of sync with range bounds r64={.base=0x0, .size=0x0}

r32={.base=0x0, .size=0xffffffff} var_off=(0x0, 0x0)

What happens:

1. Processing insn 14 (r0 += r1) in adjust_ptr_min_max_vals(), the new

offset is computed into dst_reg's var_off and 32/64-bit ranges.

2. Because pointer registers do not track 32-bit subregister bounds,

__mark_reg32_unbounded() first sets r32 to the full range; r32 is

re-derived from the offset at the end of the function by

reg_bounds_sync().

3. On the unprivileged path, sanitize_ptr_alu() is ca

/// Remediation

Check the references section for vendor advisories and patches from linux. Update linux_kernel to the latest patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.

/// Affected products

/// References