CVE-2026-74748 PUBLISHED

netfilter: ipset: fix refcount race between list:set GC and swap

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 15.08.2026 Published: 26.08.2026 Updated: 26.08.2026

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

netfilter: ipset: fix refcount race between list:set GC and swap

__ip_set_put_byindex() resolved the index to a set pointer under RCU, then took ip_set_ref_lock in __ip_set_put() to decrement set->ref. ip_set_swap() holds that same lock while swapping both the ip_set_list slots and the two sets' ref counters, so it can interleave between the dereference and the lock acquisition, leaving the caller to decrement a set whose reference already moved to the other index and hit BUG_ON(set->ref == 0). list_set_gc() reaches this from timer softirq, which the nfnl mutex does not serialize against swap: an expiring list:set member calls list_set_del() -> ip_set_put_byindex() while IPSET_CMD_SWAP runs on the referenced sets.

Resolve the index and decrement under ip_set_ref_lock, as ip_set_swap() already does, keeping the refcount tied to the index rather than to a stale set pointer.

kernel BUG at net/netfilter/ipset/ip_set_core.c:685! Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN NOPTI RIP: 0010:ip_set_put_byindex (net/netfilter/ipset/ip_set_core.c:870) Call Trace: <IRQ> list_set_del (net/netfilter/ipset/ip_set_list_set.c:159) set_cleanup_entries (net/netfilter/ipset/ip_set_list_set.c:181) list_set_gc (net/netfilter/ipset/ip_set_list_set.c:578) call_timer_fn (kernel/time/timer.c:1748) __run_timers (kernel/time/timer.c:1799 kernel/time/timer.c:2374) run_timer_softirq (kernel/time/timer.c:2405) </IRQ> Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 9076aea76538556224e7d73ab718f8841330818a to 97a01de0c6321b7210d30d0a4d60f10f561097c7 (excl.)
  • affected from 9076aea76538556224e7d73ab718f8841330818a to c21afc7c216a4d257a4f3f300e0791890bc846b9 (excl.)
  • affected from 9076aea76538556224e7d73ab718f8841330818a to b0aab9dd1a348b99d75ff52765719d0cc2050630 (excl.)
  • affected from 9076aea76538556224e7d73ab718f8841330818a to b891e7a6bb06e0f6560e5932665ac660acd12225 (excl.)
  • affected from 9076aea76538556224e7d73ab718f8841330818a to 20cb13a523f0a05cb2d0a7d72abae687683712e0 (excl.)
  • affected from 9076aea76538556224e7d73ab718f8841330818a to cb20da33839f28f590c99f16bafaa6151451c0e8 (excl.)
  • affected from 9076aea76538556224e7d73ab718f8841330818a to 24ffcb1e1688c55fd2a505f064295cd28eac546d (excl.)
  • affected from 9076aea76538556224e7d73ab718f8841330818a to 0c88868271653537ed443272dd8e7d13634d214b (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 3.8 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 3.8 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 5.10.266 to 5.10.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 5.15.217 to 5.15.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.1.184 to 6.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.6.153 to 6.6.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.105 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.46 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.1.10 to 7.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.2 to * (incl.)

References