[PATCH] libbpf: Report error when a negative kprobe offset is specified

From: Aaron Tomlin

Date: Fri Apr 17 2026 - 15:59:35 EST


In attach_kprobe(), the parsing logic uses sscanf() to extract the
target function name and offset from the section definition. Currently,
if a user specifies a negative offset (e.g., SEC("kprobe/func+-100")),
the input is not explicitly caught and reported as an error.

This commit updates the logic to explicitly notify the user when a
negative integer is provided. To facilitate this check, the offset
variable is changed from unsigned long to long so that sscanf()
can accurately capture a negative input for evaluation.

If a negative offset is detected, the loader will now print an
informative warning stating that the offset must be non-negative,
and return -EINVAL.

Additionally, free(func) is called in this new error path to prevent
a memory leak, as the function name string is dynamically allocated
by sscanf().

Signed-off-by: Aaron Tomlin <atomlin@xxxxxxxxxxx>
---
tools/lib/bpf/libbpf.c | 9 ++++++++-
1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/tools/lib/bpf/libbpf.c b/tools/lib/bpf/libbpf.c
index 42bdba4..cd250fe 100644
--- a/tools/lib/bpf/libbpf.c
+++ b/tools/lib/bpf/libbpf.c
@@ -12271,7 +12271,7 @@ error:
static int attach_kprobe(const struct bpf_program *prog, long cookie, struct bpf_link **link)
{
DECLARE_LIBBPF_OPTS(bpf_kprobe_opts, opts);
- unsigned long offset = 0;
+ long offset = 0;
const char *func_name;
char *func;
int n;
@@ -12293,6 +12293,13 @@ static int attach_kprobe(const struct bpf_program *prog, long cookie, struct bpf
pr_warn("kprobe name is invalid: %s\n", func_name);
return -EINVAL;
}
+
+ if (offset < 0) {
+ free(func);
+ pr_warn("kprobe offset must be a non-negative integer: %li\n", offset);
+ return -EINVAL;
+ }
+
if (opts.retprobe && offset != 0) {
free(func);
pr_warn("kretprobes do not support offset specification\n");
--
2.51.0