Bug 2555142 (CVE-2026-98792)

Summary: CVE-2026-98792 kernel: netfilter: flowtable: generalize pending status bit
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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Fixed In Version: Doc Type: ---
Doc Text:
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's netfilter flowtable component. This flaw allows an attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) by crashing the operating system. A race condition exists between the connection cleanup worker and hardware offload handlers when background tasks run concurrently while expired network flows are being removed.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-10-18 15:56:48 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

netfilter: flowtable: generalize pending status bit

Rename NF_FLOW_HW_PENDING to NF_FLOW_PENDING and use it to inhibit the
flowtable GC worker until pending hw offload work has been completed.

Apparently, nf_flow_offload_stats() can schedule work to retrieve stats
while the flow is being removed by GC.

And this bit can also be used in a follow up patch to disable GC until
the flow has been fully added in both directions.

Revert the reordering done in commit d644b23afe1e ("netfilter:
flowtable: publish HW_DEAD after worker is done") to prevent a race
between GC and hw offload handler.