{"cve":"CVE-2025-40123","nvd":{"published":"2025-11-12T11:15:41.807","modified":"2026-10-19T21:10:00.160","status":"Deferred","description":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nbpf: Enforce expected_attach_type for tailcall compatibility\n\nYinhao et al. recently reported:\n\n  Our fuzzer tool discovered an uninitialized pointer issue in the\n  bpf_prog_test_run_xdp() function within the Linux kernel's BPF subsystem.\n  This leads to a NULL pointer dereference when a BPF program attempts to\n  deference the txq member of struct xdp_buff object.\n\nThe test initializes two programs of BPF_PROG_TYPE_XDP: progA acts as the\nentry point for bpf_prog_test_run_xdp() and its expected_attach_type can\nneither be of be BPF_XDP_DEVMAP nor BPF_XDP_CPUMAP. progA calls into a slot\nof a tailcall map it owns. progB's expected_attach_type must be BPF_XDP_DEVMAP\nto pass xdp_is_valid_access() validation. The program returns struct xdp_md's\negress_ifindex, and the latter is only allowed to be accessed under mentioned\nexpected_attach_type. progB is then inserted into the tailcall which progA\ncalls.\n\nThe underlying issue goes beyond XDP though. Another example are programs\nof type BPF_PROG_TYPE_CGROUP_SOCK_ADDR. sock_addr_is_valid_access() as well\nas sock_addr_func_proto() have different logic depending on the programs'\nexpected_attach_type. Similarly, a program attached to BPF_CGROUP_INET4_GETPEERNAME\nshould not be allowed doing a tailcall into a program which calls bpf_bind()\nout of BPF which is only enabled for BPF_CGROUP_INET4_CONNECT.\n\nIn short, specifying expected_attach_type allows to open up additional\nfunctionality or restrictions beyond what the basic bpf_prog_type enables.\nThe use of tailcalls must not violate these constraints. Fix it by enforcing\nexpected_attach_type in __bpf_prog_map_compatible().\n\nNote that we only enforce this for tailcall maps, but not for BPF devmaps or\ncpumaps: There, the programs are invoked through dev_map_bpf_prog_run*() and\ncpu_map_bpf_prog_run*() which set up a new environment / context and therefore\nthese situations are not prone to this issue.","cvss_v4":null,"cvss_v3":{"version":"3.1","vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","score":7.8},"cwes":[],"references":["https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/08cb3dc9d2b44f153d0bcf2cb966e4a94b5d0f32","https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4540aed51b12bc13364149bf95f6ecef013197c0","https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a99de19128aec0913f3d529f529fbbff5edfaff8","https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c1ad19b5d8e23123503dcaf2d4342e1b90b923ad","https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/dc4f348952173beb8ceb15be30b249276eccb605"],"products":[],"source":"nvd","synced_at":"2026-10-21T03:43:09.190223697+00:00"},"epss":{"cve":"CVE-2025-40123","score":0.00166,"percentile":0.05778,"date":"2026-10-25"},"kev":null,"osv":[],"attribution":["This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.","EPSS scores: FIRST Exploit Prediction Scoring System, https://www.first.org/epss","Known exploited vulnerabilities: CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog","Package advisories: OSV (https://osv.dev), from the GitHub Advisory Database, PyPA, Go, RustSec and other ecosystem databases, under CC-BY 4.0 or CC0","CVE records: the CVE Program's CVE List (https://www.cve.org), under its terms of use (https://www.cve.org/Legal/TermsOfUse). CVE is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation; this product is not affiliated with the CVE Program."]}