netfilter: ctnetlink: fix use-after-free in ctnetlink_dump_exp_ct() (Linux Linux)

CVE-2026-23458
HIGH 7.8

At a glance

Source
NVD
EPSS
EPSS 0.13 % · percentile 3 ()
State
PUBLISHED
Published
Updated
Assigner
Linux
NVD status
Modified

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfilter: ctnetlink: fix use-after-free in ctnetlink_dump_exp_ct() ctnetlink_dump_exp_ct() stores a conntrack pointer in cb->data for the netlink dump callback ctnetlink_exp_ct_dump_table(), but drops the conntrack reference immediately after netlink_dump_start(). When the dump spans multiple rounds, the second recvmsg() triggers the dump callback which dereferences the now-freed conntrack via nfct_help(ct), leading to a use-after-free on ct->ext. The bug is that the netlink_dump_control has no .start or .done callbacks to manage the conntrack reference across dump rounds. Other dump functions in the same file (e.g. ctnetlink_get_conntrack) properly use .start/.done callbacks for this purpose. Fix this by adding .start and .done callbacks that hold and release the conntrack reference for the duration of the dump, and move the nfct_help() call after the cb->args[0] early-return check in the dump callback to avoid dereferencing ct->ext unnecessarily. BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in ctnetlink_exp_ct_dump_table+0x4f/0x2e0 Read of size 8 at addr ffff88810597ebf0 by task ctnetlink_poc/133 CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 133 Comm: ctnetlink_poc Not tainted 7.0.0-rc2+ #3 PREEMPTLAZY Call Trace: <TASK> ctnetlink_exp_ct_dump_table+0x4f/0x2e0 netlink_dump+0x333/0x880 netlink_recvmsg+0x3e2/0x4b0 ? aa_sk_perm+0x184/0x450 sock_recvmsg+0xde/0xf0 Allocated by task 133: kmem_cache_alloc_noprof+0x134/0x440 __nf_conntrack_alloc+0xa8/0x2b0 ctnetlink_create_conntrack+0xa1/0x900 ctnetlink_new_conntrack+0x3cf/0x7d0 nfnetlink_rcv_msg+0x48e/0x510 netlink_rcv_skb+0xc9/0x1f0 nfnetlink_rcv+0xdb/0x220 netlink_unicast+0x3ec/0x590 netlink_sendmsg+0x397/0x690 __sys_sendmsg+0xf4/0x180 Freed by task 0: slab_free_after_rcu_debug+0xad/0x1e0 rcu_core+0x5c3/0x9c0

Weaknesses (CWE)

References

Scores

VersionScoreVectorScored by
CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.8CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HLinux
CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.8CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HNVD · 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 (Secondary)

European references

CERT-FR advisories

Affected configurations (NVD CPE)

Affected products

ProductVersions
Linux · Linuxaffected e844a928431fa8f1359d1f4f2cef53d9b446bf52 < d8cd0efbccc5cfb0a80da744a7da76e1333ab925 ; affected e844a928431fa8f1359d1f4f2cef53d9b446bf52 < 9821b47f669eb82791fa0b1a6ebaf9aa219bea72 ; affected e844a928431fa8f1359d1f4f2cef53d9b446bf52 < bdf2724eefd4455a66863abb025bab8d3aa98c57 ; affected e844a928431fa8f1359d1f4f2cef53d9b446bf52 < f04cc86d59906513d2d62183b882966fc0ae0390 ; affected e844a928431fa8f1359d1f4f2cef53d9b446bf52 < f025171feef2ac65663d7986f1d5ff0c28d6b2a9 ; affected e844a928431fa8f1359d1f4f2cef53d9b446bf52 < 04c8907ce4e3d3e26c5e1a3e47aa5d17082cbb56
Linux · Linuxaffected 3.10 ; unaffected 0 < 3.10 ; unaffected 5.10.253 ≤ 5.10.* ; unaffected 5.15.203 ≤ 5.15.* ; unaffected 6.1.167 ≤ 6.1.* ; unaffected 6.6.130 ≤ 6.6.*

Sources

SourceLicence
CVE List (CVEProject cvelistV5)CVE Program Terms of Use
EPSS (FIRST.org)FIRST — attribution requested
ENISA EUVDENISA — reproduction authorised, source acknowledged
CERT-FR (ANSSI)Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0
NVD (NIST) via fkie-cad/nvd-json-data-feedsPublic domain — this product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD