CVE-2026-23272 PUBLISHED

netfilter: nf_tables: unconditionally bump set->nelems before insertion

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 13.01.2026 Published: 20.03.2026 Updated: 20.03.2026

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

netfilter: nf_tables: unconditionally bump set->nelems before insertion

In case that the set is full, a new element gets published then removed without waiting for the RCU grace period, while RCU reader can be walking over it already.

To address this issue, add the element transaction even if set is full, but toggle the set_full flag to report -ENFILE so the abort path safely unwinds the set to its previous state.

As for element updates, decrement set->nelems to restore it.

A simpler fix is to call synchronize_rcu() in the error path. However, with a large batch adding elements to already maxed-out set, this could cause noticeable slowdown of such batches.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 35d0ac9070ef619e3bf44324375878a1c540387b to 6826131c7674329335ca25df2550163eb8a1fd0c (excl.)
  • affected from 35d0ac9070ef619e3bf44324375878a1c540387b to ccb8c8f3c1127cf34d18c737309897c68046bf21 (excl.)
  • affected from 35d0ac9070ef619e3bf44324375878a1c540387b to def602e498a4f951da95c95b1b8ce8ae68aa733a (excl.)
  • Version fefdd79403e89b0c673965343b92e2e01e2713a8 is affected
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 4.10 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 4.10 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.17 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.19.7 to 6.19.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.0-rc3 to * (incl.)

References