CVE-2026-43450 PUBLISHED

netfilter: nfnetlink_cthelper: fix OOB read in nfnl_cthelper_dump_table()

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 01.05.2026 Published: 08.05.2026 Updated: 08.05.2026

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

netfilter: nfnetlink_cthelper: fix OOB read in nfnl_cthelper_dump_table()

nfnl_cthelper_dump_table() has a 'goto restart' that jumps to a label inside the for loop body. When the "last" helper saved in cb->args[1] is deleted between dump rounds, every entry fails the (cur != last) check, so cb->args[1] is never cleared. The for loop finishes with cb->args[0] == nf_ct_helper_hsize, and the 'goto restart' jumps back into the loop body bypassing the bounds check, causing an 8-byte out-of-bounds read on nf_ct_helper_hash[nf_ct_helper_hsize].

The 'goto restart' block was meant to re-traverse the current bucket when "last" is no longer found, but it was placed after the for loop instead of inside it. Move the block into the for loop body so that the restart only occurs while cb->args[0] is still within bounds.

BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in nfnl_cthelper_dump_table+0x9f/0x1b0 Read of size 8 at addr ffff888104ca3000 by task poc_cthelper/131 Call Trace: nfnl_cthelper_dump_table+0x9f/0x1b0 netlink_dump+0x333/0x880 netlink_recvmsg+0x3e2/0x4b0 sock_recvmsg+0xde/0xf0 __sys_recvfrom+0x150/0x200 __x64_sys_recvfrom+0x76/0x90 do_syscall_64+0xc3/0x6e0

Allocated by task 1: __kvmalloc_node_noprof+0x21b/0x700 nf_ct_alloc_hashtable+0x65/0xd0 nf_conntrack_helper_init+0x21/0x60 nf_conntrack_init_start+0x18d/0x300 nf_conntrack_standalone_init+0x12/0xc0

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 12f7a505331e6b2754684b509f2ac8f0011ce644 to 0605e1985a95d4334a67869aee45a47e82301abf (excl.)
  • affected from 12f7a505331e6b2754684b509f2ac8f0011ce644 to 92441f6d9405a0c18d03f278b395e782f79a4a30 (excl.)
  • affected from 12f7a505331e6b2754684b509f2ac8f0011ce644 to 3cc328ffc32ddb389cba7b78b6aa95d995c2876e (excl.)
  • affected from 12f7a505331e6b2754684b509f2ac8f0011ce644 to 4a1f6ee69267a5f524102c028981410eeacfa3da (excl.)
  • affected from 12f7a505331e6b2754684b509f2ac8f0011ce644 to 894c5780ddadd5fde0e16f66587918e6be1504c4 (excl.)
  • affected from 12f7a505331e6b2754684b509f2ac8f0011ce644 to 05018cd9370f77bb18fbf6e15ff33c7a06f10b3c (excl.)
  • affected from 12f7a505331e6b2754684b509f2ac8f0011ce644 to 61b3a1f8621df1a5928118313f133996f6a786db (excl.)
  • affected from 12f7a505331e6b2754684b509f2ac8f0011ce644 to 6dcee8496d53165b2d8a5909b3050b62ae71fe89 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 3.6 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 3.6 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 5.10.253 to 5.10.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 5.15.203 to 5.15.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.1.167 to 6.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.6.130 to 6.6.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.78 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.19 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.19.9 to 6.19.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.0 to * (incl.)

References