HomeDefectsLIN1023-19043
Acknowledged

LIN1023-19043 : Security Advisory - linux - CVE-2026-23231

Created: Mar 4, 2026    Updated: Mar 11, 2026
Found In Version: 10.23.30.2
Severity: Standard
Applicable for: Wind River Linux LTS 23
Component/s: Kernel

Description

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

netfilter: nf_tables: fix use-after-free in nf_tables_addchain()

nf_tables_addchain() publishes the chain to table->chains via
list_add_tail_rcu() (in nft_chain_add()) before registering hooks.
If nf_tables_register_hook() then fails, the error path calls
nft_chain_del() (list_del_rcu()) followed by nf_tables_chain_destroy()
with no RCU grace period in between.

This creates two use-after-free conditions:

 1) Control-plane: nf_tables_dump_chains() traverses table->chains
    under rcu_read_lock(). A concurrent dump can still be walking
    the chain when the error path frees it.

 2) Packet path: for NFPROTO_INET, nf_register_net_hook() briefly
    installs the IPv4 hook before IPv6 registration fails.  Packets
    entering nft_do_chain() via the transient IPv4 hook can still be
    dereferencing chain->blob_gen_X when the error path frees the
    chain.

Add synchronize_rcu() between nft_chain_del() and the chain destroy
so that all RCU readers -- both dump threads and in-flight packet
evaluation -- have finished before the chain is freed.