Bug 2541075 (CVE-2026-97608)

Summary: CVE-2026-97608 kernel: netfilter: nf_log: unregister loggers before per-net teardown
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: akhatavk, aos-team-art-private, asdas, dpaolell, jdelft, jupierce, lgarciaa, mbiarnes, ppalepu, ppostler, prdhamdh, rhel-process-autobot, sghai, sidsharm, suppawar, vlaad, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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Doc Text:
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's netfilter subsystem. A race condition occurs when network namespace operations are torn down before global logging backends are unregistered. A local user can exploit this timing window through sysctl or netlink interfaces to rebind a logger while it is being removed. This improper teardown sequence allows the kernel to access freed memory during subsequent logging operations, leading to a system crash and Denial of Service (DoS).
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-09-25 10:45:39 UTC
In 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.