Bug 2405760 (CVE-2023-53701)

Summary:	CVE-2023-53701 kernel: Kernel: Denial of Service in Netfilter's nf_tables component
Product:	[Other] Security Response	Reporter:	OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component:	vulnerability	Assignee:	Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status:	NEW ---	QA Contact:
Severity:	medium	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	unspecified	Keywords:	Security
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	---
Doc Text:	A vulnerability was identified in the Linux kernel’s netfilter nf_tables subsystem that could lead to wild memory access under specific conditions. When deleting elements from an anonymous set already removed in the same transaction during nftables operations, internal state handling did not properly deactivate the set, leading to a potential write of invalid memory. On systems with Kernel Address Sanitizer (KASAN) enabled or during certain transaction flows, this flaw can result in a write at an invalid address, causing system instability.	Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:		Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
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oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2025-10-22 14:05:09 UTC

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

netfilter: nf_tables: deactivate anonymous set from preparation phase

[ backport for 4.14 of c1592a89942e9678f7d9c8030efa777c0d57edab ]

Toggle deleted anonymous sets as inactive in the next generation, so
users cannot perform any update on it. Clear the generation bitmask
in case the transaction is aborted.

The following KASAN splat shows a set element deletion for a bound
anonymous set that has been already removed in the same transaction.

[   64.921510] ==================================================================
[   64.923123] BUG: KASAN: wild-memory-access in nf_tables_commit+0xa24/0x1490 [nf_tables]
[   64.924745] Write of size 8 at addr dead000000000122 by task test/890
[   64.927903] CPU: 3 PID: 890 Comm: test Not tainted 6.3.0+ #253
[   64.931120] Call Trace:
[   64.932699]  <TASK>
[   64.934292]  dump_stack_lvl+0x33/0x50
[   64.935908]  ? nf_tables_commit+0xa24/0x1490 [nf_tables]
[   64.937551]  kasan_report+0xda/0x120
[   64.939186]  ? nf_tables_commit+0xa24/0x1490 [nf_tables]
[   64.940814]  nf_tables_commit+0xa24/0x1490 [nf_tables]
[   64.942452]  ? __kasan_slab_alloc+0x2d/0x60
[   64.944070]  ? nf_tables_setelem_notify+0x190/0x190 [nf_tables]
[   64.945710]  ? kasan_set_track+0x21/0x30
[   64.947323]  nfnetlink_rcv_batch+0x709/0xd90 [nfnetlink]
[   64.948898]  ? nfnetlink_rcv_msg+0x480/0x480 [nfnetlink]

Comment 1 Jon Moroney 2025-10-22 16:43:20 UTC

Upstream advisory:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2025102211-CVE-2023-53701-fb7f@gregkh/T