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High severity7.8NVD Advisory· Published Mar 4, 2026· Updated Jun 2, 2026

CVE-2026-23231

CVE-2026-23231

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.

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