CVE-2026-52938

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

bpf: Fix NULL pointer dereference in bpf_sk_storage_clone and diag paths

bpf_selem_unlink_nofail() sets SDATA(selem)->smap to NULL before removing the selem from the storage hlist. A concurrent RCU reader in bpf_sk_storage_clone() can observe the selem still on the list with smap already NULL, causing a NULL pointer dereference.

general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc000000000a: KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000050-0x0000000000000057] RIP: 0010:bpf_sk_storage_clone+0x1cd/0xaa0 net/core/bpf_sk_storage.c:174 Call Trace: sk_clone+0xfed/0x1980 net/core/sock.c:2591 inet_csk_clone_lock+0x30/0x760 net/ipv4/inet_connection_sock.c:1222 tcp_create_openreq_child+0x35/0x2680 net/ipv4/tcp_minisocks.c:571 tcp_v4_syn_recv_sock+0x123/0xf90 net/ipv4/tcp_ipv4.c:1729 tcp_check_req+0x8e1/0x2580 include/net/tcp.h:855 tcp_v4_rcv+0x1845/0x3b80 net/ipv4/tcp_ipv4.c:2347

Add a NULL check for smap in bpf_sk_storage_clone().

bpf_sk_storage_diag_put_all() has the same issue. Add a NULL check and pass the validated smap directly to diag_get(), which is refactored to take smap as a parameter instead of reading it internally.

bpf_sk_storage_diag_put() uses diag->maps[i] which is always valid under its refcount, so diag->maps[i] is passed directly to diag_get().

Weakness

The product dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid but is NULL.

Affected Software

Potential Mitigations

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/16af24fea29c209dea53595c99f6da9398548e1b
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/375e4e33c18dfa05c5dfd5f3dfffeb29343dd4c7