Bug 2525374 (CVE-2026-80664)

Summary: CVE-2026-80664 kernel: netfilter: xt_nat: reject unsupported target families
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's netfilter component, specifically within the xt_nat SNAT and DNAT target handlers. These handlers incorrectly assume the presence of an IP-family connection tracking state. A local attacker, by instantiating these handlers from an unsupported family, such as a bridge-family, through nft_compat, could trigger a NULL pointer dereference. This vulnerability could lead to a system crash, resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS).
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-28 07:41:43 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

netfilter: xt_nat: reject unsupported target families

xt_nat SNAT and DNAT target handlers assume IP-family conntrack state
is present and can dereference a NULL pointer when instantiated from an
unsupported family through nft_compat. A bridge-family compat rule can
therefore trigger a NULL-dereference in nf_nat_setup_info().

Reject non-IP families in xt_nat_checkentry() so unsupported targets
cannot be installed. Keep NFPROTO_INET allowed for valid inet NAT
compat users and leave the runtime fast path unchanged.

[ The crash was fixed via
  9dbba7e694ec ("netfilter: nft_compat: ebtables emulation must reject non-bridge targets"),
  so this patch is no longer critical.
  Nevertheless, NAT is only relevant for ipv4/ipv6, so this extra
  family check is a good idea in any case. ]