Medium [CVE-2026-53081] Enforce regsafe base id consistency for BPF_ADD_CONST scalars
This medium-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-53081 affecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, Red Hat package: kernel-rt.
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Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: Enforce regsafe base id consistency for BPF_ADD_CONST scalars When regsafe() compares two scalar registers that both carry BPF_ADD_CONST, check_scalar_ids() maps their full compound id (aka base | BPF_ADD_CONST flag) as one idmap entry.
However, it never verifies that the underlying base ids, that is, with the flag stripped are consistent with existing idmap mappings. This allows construction of two verifier states where the old state has R3 = R2 + 10 (both sharing base id A) while the current state has R3 = R4 + 10 (base id C, unrelated to R2).
The idmap creates two independent entries: A->B (for R2) and A|flag->C|flag (for R3), without catching that A->C conflicts with A->B. State pruning then incorrectly succeeds.
Fix this by additionally verifying base ID mapping consistency whenever BPF_ADD_CONST is set: after mapping the compound ids, also invoke check_ids() on the base IDs (flag bits stripped). This ensures that if A was already mapped to B from comparing the source register, any ADD_CONST derivative must also derive from B, not an unrelated C.
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's Berkeley Packet Filter (BPF) verifier. This vulnerability occurs due to inconsistent base ID mapping when the `regsafe()` function compares scalar registers with `BPF_ADD_CONST` values.
Affected versions
No affected-version range was extracted from the source record. The vendor advisory is authoritative — check it before change work.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 9 days ago·verify at source
Fixed versions
No fixed release is recorded yet. That does not prove no patch exists — confirm against the vendor advisory.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 9 days ago·verify at source
Mitigation
The source record does not include mitigation steps. That is not a statement that no fix exists — read the vendor advisory below for the authoritative guidance.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 9 days ago·verify at source
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