It looks like I hit a related but slightly different bug with bpf_iter_next(). Consider the following example: SEC("fentry/" SYS_PREFIX "sys_nanosleep") int num_iter_bug(const void *ctx) { struct bpf_iter_num it; // fp[-8] below __u64 val = 0; // fp[-16] in the below __u64 *ptr = &val; // r7 below __u64 rnd = bpf_get_current_pid_tgid(); // r6 below void *v; bpf_iter_num_new(&it, 0, 10); while ((v = bpf_iter_num_next(&it))) { rnd++; if (rnd == 42) { ptr = (void*)(0xdead); continue; } bpf_probe_read_user(ptr, 8, (void*)(0xdeadbeef)); } bpf_iter_num_destroy(&it); return 0; } (Unfortunately, it had to be converted to assembly to avoid compiler clobbering loop structure, complete test case is at the end of the email). The example is not safe because of 0xdead being a possible `ptr` value. However, currently it is marked as safe. This happens because of states_equal() usage for iterator convergence detection: static int is_state_visited(struct bpf_verifier_env *env, int insn_idx) ... while (sl) states_cnt++; if (sl->state.insn_idx != insn_idx) goto next; if (sl->state.branches) ... if (is_iter_next_insn(env, insn_idx)) { if (states_equal(env, &sl->state, cur)) { ... if (iter_state->iter.state == BPF_ITER_STATE_ACTIVE) goto hit; } goto skip_inf_loop_check; } ... With some additional logging I see that the following states are considered equal: 13: (85) call bpf_iter_num_next#59908 ... at is_iter_next_insn(insn 13): old state: R0=scalar() R1_rw=fp-8 R6_r=scalar(id=1) R7=fp-16 R10=fp0 fp-8_r=iter_num(ref_id=2,state=active,depth=0) fp-16=00000000 refs=2 cur state: R0=rdonly_mem(id=3,ref_obj_id=2,off=0,imm=0) R1_w=fp-8 R6=42 R7_w=57005 R10=fp0 fp-8=iter_num(ref_id=2,state=active,depth=1) fp-16=00000000 refs=2 states_equal()?: true Note that R7=fp-16 in old state vs R7_w=57005 in cur state. The registers are considered equal because R7 does not have a read mark. However read marks are not yet finalized for old state because sl->state.branches != 0. (Note: precision marks are not finalized as well, which should be a problem, but this requires another example). A possible fix is to add a special flag to states_equal() and conditionally ignore logic related to liveness and precision when this flag is set. Set this flag for is_iter_next_insn() branch above. --- /* BTF FUNC records are not generated for kfuncs referenced * from inline assembly. These records are necessary for * libbpf to link the program. The function below is a hack * to ensure that BTF FUNC records are generated. */ void __kfunc_btf_root(void) { bpf_iter_num_new(0, 0, 0); bpf_iter_num_next(0); bpf_iter_num_destroy(0); } SEC("fentry/" SYS_PREFIX "sys_nanosleep") __naked int num_iter_bug(const void *ctx) { asm volatile ( // r7 = &fp[-16] // fp[-16] = 0 "r7 = r10;" "r7 += -16;" "r0 = 0;" "*(u64 *)(r7 + 0) = r0;" // r6 = bpf_get_current_pid_tgid() "call %[bpf_get_current_pid_tgid];" "r6 = r0;" // bpf_iter_num_new(&fp[-8], 0, 10) "r1 = r10;" "r1 += -8;" "r2 = 0;" "r3 = 10;" "call %[bpf_iter_num_new];" // while (bpf_iter_num_next(&fp[-8])) { // r6++ // if (r6 != 42) { // r7 = 0xdead // continue; // } // bpf_probe_read_user(r7, 8, 0xdeadbeef) // } "1:" "r1 = r10;" "r1 += -8;" "call %[bpf_iter_num_next];" "if r0 == 0 goto 2f;" "r6 += 1;" "if r6 != 42 goto 3f;" "r7 = 0xdead;" "goto 1b;" "3:" "r1 = r7;" "r2 = 8;" "r3 = 0xdeadbeef;" "call %[bpf_probe_read_user];" "goto 1b;" "2:" // bpf_iter_num_destroy(&fp[-8]) "r1 = r10;" "r1 += -8;" "call %[bpf_iter_num_destroy];" // return 0 "r0 = 0;" "exit;" : : __imm(bpf_get_current_pid_tgid), __imm(bpf_iter_num_new), __imm(bpf_iter_num_next), __imm(bpf_iter_num_destroy), __imm(bpf_probe_read_user) : __clobber_all ); }