CVE-2026-97608In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
netfilter: nf_log: unregister loggers before per-net teardown
nf_log_syslog and nfnetlink_log unregister their per-network namespace
operations before unregistering their global logger backends. This
leaves a window where a sysctl or netlink writer can rebind the still-
registered logger after the per-net pre-exit callback cleared the old
selection.
The race looks like this:
CPU 0 CPU 1
---- ----
unregister_pernet_subsys()
nf_log_unset(net, logger)
net->nf.nf_loggers[pf] = NULL
lock nf_log_mutex
find logger in loggers[][]
net->nf.nf_loggers[pf] = logger
unlock nf_log_mutex
nf_log_unregister(logger)
lock nf_log_mutex
loggers[pf][type] = NULL
unlock nf_log_mutex
synchronize_rcu()
module exit returns
module core frees backend memory
Later, a sysctl read or packet logging operation can dereference the
stale per-net logger pointer.
Fix this by unregistering the global logger backends before tearing down
per-net state. Once the global registrations are gone, later writers can
no longer rebind the logger. unregister_pernet_subsys() already waits
for an RCU grace period after the pre-exit callback clears the per-net
selection, while nf_log_unregister() continues to cover readers of the
global logger table.
Apply this ordering fix to both nf_log backends that combine per-net
teardown with global logger registration.