BPF_STX through ARG_IMPRECISE dst should be recognized as a local
spill and join at_stack with the written value. For example,
consider the following situation:
// r1 = ARG_IMPRECISE{mask=BIT(0)|BIT(1)}
*(u64 *)(r1 + 0) = r8
Here the analysis should produce an equivalent of
at_stack[*] = join(old, r8)
BPF_ST through multi-offset or imprecise dst should join at_stack with
none instead of overwriting the slots. For example, consider the
following situation:
// r1 = ARG_IMPRECISE{mask=BIT(0)|BIT(1)}
*(u64 *)(r1 + 0) = 0
Here the analysis should produce an equivalent of
at_stack[*r1] = join(old, none).
Move the definition of the clear_overlapping_stack_slots() in order to
have __arg_track_join() visible. Remove the OFF_IMPRECISE constant to
avoid having two ways to express imprecise offset.
Only 'offset-imprecise {frame=N, cnt=0}' remains.
Fixes: bf0c571f7f ("bpf: introduce forward arg-tracking dataflow analysis")
Signed-off-by: Eduard Zingerman <eddyz87@gmail.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260413-stacklive-fixes-v2-1-398e126e5cf3@gmail.com
Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>
Rework func_instance identification and remove the dynamic liveness
API, completing the transition to fully static stack liveness analysis.
Replace callchain-based func_instance keys with (callsite, depth)
pairs. The full callchain (all ancestor callsites) is no longer part
of the hash key; only the immediate callsite and the call depth
matter. This does not lose precision in practice and simplifies the
data structure significantly: struct callchain is removed entirely,
func_instance stores just callsite, depth.
Drop must_write_acc propagation. Previously, must_write marks were
accumulated across successors and propagated to the caller via
propagate_to_outer_instance(). Instead, callee entry liveness
(live_before at subprog start) is pulled directly back to the
caller's callsite in analyze_subprog() after each callee returns.
Since (callsite, depth) instances are shared across different call
chains that invoke the same subprog at the same depth, must_write
marks from one call may be stale for another. To handle this,
analyze_subprog() records into a fresh_instance() when the instance
was already visited (must_write_initialized), then merge_instances()
combines the results: may_read is unioned, must_write is intersected.
This ensures only slots written on ALL paths through all call sites
are marked as guaranteed writes.
This replaces commit_stack_write_marks() logic.
Skip recursive descent into callees that receive no FP-derived
arguments (has_fp_args() check). This is needed because global
subprogram calls can push depth beyond MAX_CALL_FRAMES (max depth
is 64 for global calls but only 8 frames are accommodated for FP
passing). It also handles the case where a callback subprog cannot be
determined by argument tracking: such callbacks will be processed by
analyze_subprog() at depth 0 independently.
Update lookup_instance() (used by is_live_before queries) to search
for the func_instance with maximal depth at the corresponding
callsite, walking depth downward from frameno to 0. This accounts for
the fact that instance depth no longer corresponds 1:1 to
bpf_verifier_state->curframe, since skipped non-FP calls create gaps.
Remove the dynamic public liveness API from verifier.c:
- bpf_mark_stack_{read,write}(), bpf_reset/commit_stack_write_marks()
- bpf_update_live_stack(), bpf_reset_live_stack_callchain()
- All call sites in check_stack_{read,write}_fixed_off(),
check_stack_range_initialized(), mark_stack_slot_obj_read(),
mark/unmark_stack_slots_{dynptr,iter,irq_flag}()
- The per-instruction write mark accumulation in do_check()
- The bpf_update_live_stack() call in prepare_func_exit()
mark_stack_read() and mark_stack_write() become static functions in
liveness.c, called only from the static analysis pass. The
func_instance->updated and must_write_dropped flags are removed.
Remove spis_single_slot(), spis_one_bit() helpers from bpf_verifier.h
as they are no longer used.
Signed-off-by: Eduard Zingerman <eddyz87@gmail.com>
Tested-by: Paul Chaignon <paul.chaignon@gmail.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260410-patch-set-v4-9-5d4eecb343db@gmail.com
Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>
After arg tracking reaches a fixed point, perform a single linear scan
over the converged at_in[] state and translate each memory access into
liveness read/write masks on the func_instance:
- Load/store instructions: FP-derived pointer's frame and offset(s)
are converted to half-slot masks targeting
per_frame_masks->{may_read,must_write}
- Helper/kfunc calls: record_call_access() queries
bpf_helper_stack_access_bytes() / bpf_kfunc_stack_access_bytes()
for each FP-derived argument to determine access size and direction.
Unknown access size (S64_MIN) conservatively marks all slots from
fp_off to fp+0 as read.
- Imprecise pointers (frame == ARG_IMPRECISE): conservatively mark
all slots in every frame covered by the pointer's frame bitmask
as fully read.
- Static subprog calls with unresolved arguments: conservatively mark
all frames as fully read.
Instead of a call to clean_live_states(), start cleaning the current
state continuously as registers and stack become dead since the static
analysis provides complete liveness information. This makes
clean_live_states() and bpf_verifier_state->cleaned unnecessary.
Signed-off-by: Eduard Zingerman <eddyz87@gmail.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260410-patch-set-v4-8-5d4eecb343db@gmail.com
Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>
The analysis is a basis for static liveness tracking mechanism
introduced by the next two commits.
A forward fixed-point analysis that tracks which frame's FP each
register value is derived from, and at what byte offset. This is
needed because a callee can receive a pointer to its caller's stack
frame (e.g. r1 = fp-16 at the call site), then do *(u64 *)(r1 + 0)
inside the callee — a cross-frame stack access that the callee's local
liveness must attribute to the caller's stack.
Each register holds an arg_track value from a three-level lattice:
- Precise {frame=N, off=[o1,o2,...]} — known frame index and
up to 4 concrete byte offsets
- Offset-imprecise {frame=N, off_cnt=0} — known frame, unknown offset
- Fully-imprecise {frame=ARG_IMPRECISE, mask=bitmask} — unknown frame,
mask says which frames might be involved
At CFG merge points the lattice moves toward imprecision (same
frame+offset stays precise, same frame different offsets merges offset
sets or becomes offset-imprecise, different frames become
fully-imprecise with OR'd bitmask).
The analysis also tracks spills/fills to the callee's own stack
(at_stack_in/out), so FP derived values spilled and reloaded.
This pass is run recursively per call site: when subprog A calls B
with specific FP-derived arguments, B is re-analyzed with those entry
args. The recursion follows analyze_subprog -> compute_subprog_args ->
(for each call insn) -> analyze_subprog. Subprogs that receive no
FP-derived args are skipped during recursion and analyzed
independently at depth 0.
Signed-off-by: Eduard Zingerman <eddyz87@gmail.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260410-patch-set-v4-7-5d4eecb343db@gmail.com
Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>
Move the `updated` check and reset from bpf_update_live_stack() into
update_instance() itself, so callers outside the main loop can reuse
it. Similarly, move write_insn_idx assignment out of
reset_stack_write_marks() into its public caller, and thread insn_idx
as a parameter to commit_stack_write_marks() instead of reading it
from liveness->write_insn_idx. Drop the unused `env` parameter from
alloc_frame_masks() and mark_stack_read().
Signed-off-by: Eduard Zingerman <eddyz87@gmail.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260410-patch-set-v4-6-5d4eecb343db@gmail.com
Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>
Migrate clean_verifier_state() and its liveness queries from 8-byte
SPI granularity to 4-byte half-slot granularity.
In __clean_func_state(), each SPI is cleaned in two independent
halves:
- half_spi 2*i (lo): slot_type[0..3]
- half_spi 2*i+1 (hi): slot_type[4..7]
Slot types STACK_DYNPTR, STACK_ITER and STACK_IRQ_FLAG are never
cleaned, as their slot type markers are required by
destroy_if_dynptr_stack_slot(), is_iter_reg_valid_uninit() and
is_irq_flag_reg_valid_uninit() for correctness.
When only the hi half is dead, spilled_ptr metadata is destroyed and
the lo half's STACK_SPILL bytes are downgraded to STACK_MISC or
STACK_ZERO. When only the lo half is dead, spilled_ptr is preserved
because the hi half may still need it for state comparison.
Signed-off-by: Eduard Zingerman <eddyz87@gmail.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260410-patch-set-v4-5-5d4eecb343db@gmail.com
Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>
Convert liveness bitmask type from u64 to spis_t, doubling the number
of trackable stack slots from 64 to 128 to support 4-byte granularity.
Each 8-byte SPI now maps to two consecutive 4-byte sub-slots in the
bitmask: spi*2 half and spi*2+1 half. In verifier.c,
check_stack_write_fixed_off() now reports 4-byte aligned writes of
4-byte writes as half-slot marks and 8-byte aligned 8-byte writes as
two slots. Similar logic applied in check_stack_read_fixed_off().
Queries (is_live_before) are not yet migrated to half-slot
granularity.
Signed-off-by: Eduard Zingerman <eddyz87@gmail.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260410-patch-set-v4-4-5d4eecb343db@gmail.com
Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>
This is the result of running the Coccinelle script from
scripts/coccinelle/api/kmalloc_objs.cocci. The script is designed to
avoid scalar types (which need careful case-by-case checking), and
instead replace kmalloc-family calls that allocate struct or union
object instances:
Single allocations: kmalloc(sizeof(TYPE), ...)
are replaced with: kmalloc_obj(TYPE, ...)
Array allocations: kmalloc_array(COUNT, sizeof(TYPE), ...)
are replaced with: kmalloc_objs(TYPE, COUNT, ...)
Flex array allocations: kmalloc(struct_size(PTR, FAM, COUNT), ...)
are replaced with: kmalloc_flex(*PTR, FAM, COUNT, ...)
(where TYPE may also be *VAR)
The resulting allocations no longer return "void *", instead returning
"TYPE *".
Signed-off-by: Kees Cook <kees@kernel.org>
Add support for a new instruction
BPF_JMP|BPF_X|BPF_JA, SRC=0, DST=Rx, off=0, imm=0
which does an indirect jump to a location stored in Rx. The register
Rx should have type PTR_TO_INSN. This new type assures that the Rx
register contains a value (or a range of values) loaded from a
correct jump table – map of type instruction array.
For example, for a C switch LLVM will generate the following code:
0: r3 = r1 # "switch (r3)"
1: if r3 > 0x13 goto +0x666 # check r3 boundaries
2: r3 <<= 0x3 # adjust to an index in array of addresses
3: r1 = 0xbeef ll # r1 is PTR_TO_MAP_VALUE, r1->map_ptr=M
5: r1 += r3 # r1 inherits boundaries from r3
6: r1 = *(u64 *)(r1 + 0x0) # r1 now has type INSN_TO_PTR
7: gotox r1 # jit will generate proper code
Here the gotox instruction corresponds to one particular map. This is
possible however to have a gotox instruction which can be loaded from
different maps, e.g.
0: r1 &= 0x1
1: r2 <<= 0x3
2: r3 = 0x0 ll # load from map M_1
4: r3 += r2
5: if r1 == 0x0 goto +0x4
6: r1 <<= 0x3
7: r3 = 0x0 ll # load from map M_2
9: r3 += r1
A: r1 = *(u64 *)(r3 + 0x0)
B: gotox r1 # jump to target loaded from M_1 or M_2
During check_cfg stage the verifier will collect all the maps which
point to inside the subprog being verified. When building the config,
the high 16 bytes of the insn_state are used, so this patch
(theoretically) supports jump tables of up to 2^16 slots.
During the later stage, in check_indirect_jump, it is checked that
the register Rx was loaded from a particular instruction array.
Signed-off-by: Anton Protopopov <a.s.protopopov@gmail.com>
Acked-by: Eduard Zingerman <eddyz87@gmail.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20251105090410.1250500-9-a.s.protopopov@gmail.com
Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>
The bpf_insn_successors() function is used to return successors
to a BPF instruction. So far, an instruction could have 0, 1 or 2
successors. Prepare the verifier code to introduction of instructions
with more than 2 successors (namely, indirect jumps).
To do this, introduce a new struct, struct bpf_iarray, containing
an array of bpf instruction indexes and make bpf_insn_successors
to return a pointer of that type. The storage for all instructions
is allocated in the env->succ, which holds an array of size 2,
to be used for all instructions.
Signed-off-by: Anton Protopopov <a.s.protopopov@gmail.com>
Acked-by: Eduard Zingerman <eddyz87@gmail.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20251019202145.3944697-10-a.s.protopopov@gmail.com
Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>
propagate_to_outer_instance() calls get_outer_instance() and uses the
returned pointer to reset and commit stack write marks. Under normal
conditions, update_instance() guarantees that an outer instance exists,
so get_outer_instance() cannot return an ERR_PTR.
However, explicitly checking for IS_ERR(outer_instance) makes this code
more robust and self-documenting. It reduces cognitive load when reading
the control flow and silences potential false-positive reports from
static analysis or automated tooling.
No functional change intended.
Signed-off-by: Shardul Bankar <shardulsb08@gmail.com>
Acked-by: Eduard Zingerman <eddyz87@gmail.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20251021080849.860072-1-shardulsb08@gmail.com
Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>
When __lookup_instance() allocates a func_instance structure but fails
to allocate the must_write_set array, it returns an error without freeing
the previously allocated func_instance. This causes a memory leak of 192
bytes (sizeof(struct func_instance)) each time this error path is triggered.
Fix by freeing 'result' on must_write_set allocation failure.
Fixes: b3698c356a ("bpf: callchain sensitive stack liveness tracking using CFG")
Reported-by: BPF Runtime Fuzzer (BRF)
Signed-off-by: Shardul Bankar <shardulsb08@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Martin KaFai Lau <martin.lau@kernel.org>
Acked-by: Eduard Zingerman <eddyz87@gmail.com>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20251016063330.4107547-1-shardulsb08@gmail.com
Converting bpf_insn_successors() to use lookup table makes it ~1.5
times faster.
Also remove unnecessary conditionals:
- `idx + 1 < prog->len` is unnecessary because after check_cfg() all
jump targets are guaranteed to be within a program;
- `i == 0 || succ[0] != dst` is unnecessary because any client of
bpf_insn_successors() can handle duplicate edges:
- compute_live_registers()
- compute_scc()
Moving bpf_insn_successors() to liveness.c allows its inlining in
liveness.c:__update_stack_liveness().
Such inlining speeds up __update_stack_liveness() by ~40%.
bpf_insn_successors() is used in both verifier.c and liveness.c.
perf shows such move does not negatively impact users in verifier.c,
as these are executed only once before main varification pass.
Unlike __update_stack_liveness() which can be triggered multiple
times.
Signed-off-by: Eduard Zingerman <eddyz87@gmail.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250918-callchain-sensitive-liveness-v3-10-c3cd27bacc60@gmail.com
Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>
This commit adds a flow-sensitive, context-sensitive, path-insensitive
data flow analysis for live stack slots:
- flow-sensitive: uses program control flow graph to compute data flow
values;
- context-sensitive: collects data flow values for each possible call
chain in a program;
- path-insensitive: does not distinguish between separate control flow
graph paths reaching the same instruction.
Compared to the current path-sensitive analysis, this approach trades
some precision for not having to enumerate every path in the program.
This gives a theoretical capability to run the analysis before main
verification pass. See cover letter for motivation.
The basic idea is as follows:
- Data flow values indicate stack slots that might be read and stack
slots that are definitely written.
- Data flow values are collected for each
(call chain, instruction number) combination in the program.
- Within a subprogram, data flow values are propagated using control
flow graph.
- Data flow values are transferred from entry instructions of callee
subprograms to call sites in caller subprograms.
In other words, a tree of all possible call chains is constructed.
Each node of this tree represents a subprogram. Read and write marks
are collected for each instruction of each node. Live stack slots are
first computed for lower level nodes. Then, information about outer
stack slots that might be read or are definitely written by a
subprogram is propagated one level up, to the corresponding call
instructions of the upper nodes. Procedure repeats until root node is
processed.
In the absence of value range analysis, stack read/write marks are
collected during main verification pass, and data flow computation is
triggered each time verifier.c:states_equal() needs to query the
information.
Implementation details are documented in kernel/bpf/liveness.c.
Quantitative data about verification performance changes and memory
consumption is in the cover letter.
Signed-off-by: Eduard Zingerman <eddyz87@gmail.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250918-callchain-sensitive-liveness-v3-6-c3cd27bacc60@gmail.com
Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>
