CVE-2025-37959

bpf: Scrub packet on bpf_redirect_peer

State
Published
Severity
9.4 Critical
Published
May 20, 2025
Updated
Oct 15, 2026
Reserved
Apr 16, 2025

Read the record on cve.org

Description

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

bpf: Scrub packet on bpf_redirect_peer

When bpf_redirect_peer is used to redirect packets to a device in another network namespace, the skb isn't scrubbed. That can lead skb information from one namespace to be "misused" in another namespace.

As one example, this is causing Cilium to drop traffic when using bpf_redirect_peer to redirect packets that just went through IPsec decryption to a container namespace. The following pwru trace shows (1) the packet path from the host's XFRM layer to the container's XFRM layer where it's dropped and (2) the number of active skb extensions at each function.

NETNS MARK IFACE TUPLE FUNC 4026533547 d00 eth0 10.244.3.124:35473->10.244.2.158:53 xfrm_rcv_cb .active_extensions = (__u8)2, 4026533547 d00 eth0 10.244.3.124:35473->10.244.2.158:53 xfrm4_rcv_cb .active_extensions = (__u8)2, 4026533547 d00 eth0 10.244.3.124:35473->10.244.2.158:53 gro_cells_receive .active_extensions = (__u8)2, [...] 4026533547 0 eth0 10.244.3.124:35473->10.244.2.158:53 skb_do_redirect .active_extensions = (__u8)2, 4026534999 0 eth0 10.244.3.124:35473->10.244.2.158:53 ip_rcv .active_extensions = (__u8)2, 4026534999 0 eth0 10.244.3.124:35473->10.244.2.158:53 ip_rcv_core .active_extensions = (__u8)2, [...] 4026534999 0 eth0 10.244.3.124:35473->10.244.2.158:53 udp_queue_rcv_one_skb .active_extensions = (__u8)2, 4026534999 0 eth0 10.244.3.124:35473->10.244.2.158:53 __xfrm_policy_check .active_extensions = (__u8)2, 4026534999 0 eth0 10.244.3.124:35473->10.244.2.158:53 __xfrm_decode_session .active_extensions = (__u8)2, 4026534999 0 eth0 10.244.3.124:35473->10.244.2.158:53 security_xfrm_decode_session .active_extensions = (__u8)2, 4026534999 0 eth0 10.244.3.124:35473->10.244.2.158:53 kfree_skb_reason(SKB_DROP_REASON_XFRM_POLICY) .active_extensions = (__u8)2,

In this case, there are no XFRM policies in the container's network namespace so the drop is unexpected. When we decrypt the IPsec packet, the XFRM state used for decryption is set in the skb extensions. This information is preserved across the netns switch. When we reach the XFRM policy check in the container's netns, __xfrm_policy_check drops the packet with LINUX_MIB_XFRMINNOPOLS because a (container-side) XFRM policy can't be found that matches the (host-side) XFRM state used for decryption.

This patch fixes this by scrubbing the packet when using bpf_redirect_peer, as is done on typical netns switches via veth devices except skb->mark and skb->tstamp are not zeroed.

Scores

CVSSScoreVectorSource
3.19.4 CriticalCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:HLinux

Weaknesses

The record names no weakness.

Affected Products

ProductVersions
LinuxLinux
  • 9aa1206e8f48222f35a0c809f33b2f4aaa1e2661 to before de1067cc8cf0e8c11ae20cbe5c467aef19d04dedAffected
  • 9aa1206e8f48222f35a0c809f33b2f4aaa1e2661 to before 355b0526336c0bf2bf7feaca033568ede524f763Affected
  • 9aa1206e8f48222f35a0c809f33b2f4aaa1e2661 to before b37e54259cab4f78b53953d6f6268b85f07bef3eAffected
  • 9aa1206e8f48222f35a0c809f33b2f4aaa1e2661 to before 9e15ef33ba39fb6d9d1f51445957f16983a9437aAffected
  • 9aa1206e8f48222f35a0c809f33b2f4aaa1e2661 to before c4327229948879814229b46aa26a750718888503Affected
LinuxLinux
  • 5.10Affected
  • before 5.10Not affected
  • 6.1.139 through 6.1.*Not affected
  • 6.6.91 through 6.6.*Not affected
  • 6.12.29 through 6.12.*Not affected
  • 6.14.7 through 6.14.*Not affected
  • 6.15 and laterNot affected

References

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