netlink: do not free nlk->groups while lockless readers can use it
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netlink: do not free nlk->groups while lockless readers can use it netlink_realloc_groups() uses krealloc() under netlink_table_grab(). Whenever NLGRPSZ(groups) lands in a different kmalloc bucket, the old bitmap is freed immediately. Two readers of nlk->groups / nlk->ngroups do not hold the netlink table lock: 1) sk_diag_dump_groups(). Hashed (bound) sockets are dumped from the rhashtable walk in __netlink_diag_dump(), which only holds RCU. Only the mc_list part of the dump takes nl_table_lock. 2) netlink_native_seq_show() (/proc/net/netlink), whose walk has been lockless since commit 21e4902aea80 ("netlink: Lockless lookup with RCU grace period in socket release"). Both can read a freed buffer, and sk_diag_dump_groups() can also read past the end of the old (smaller) buffer if it happens to load the old @groups pointer together with the new @ngroups value, copying the result into a NETLINK_DIAG_GROUPS attribute. This is the same class of bug that commit f773608026ee ("netlink: access nlk groups safely in netlink bind and getname") fixed for bind() and getname(); these two readers were missed. Simply grabbing the table lock in sk_diag_dump_groups() is not an option, because it is also called with nl_table_lock already held from the mc_list section of the dump. Make the lockless readers safe instead: - Allocate a new bitmap and free the old one after an RCU grace period, instead of relying on the implicit kfr
CVE-2026-98284
Primary source · Revision 1
Imported from structured advisory data. Source references identify upstream records or fields; verify affected versions and your deployed configuration.
Security context
Source reference: cve:CVE-2026-98284
Linux
Source reference: /containers/cna/affected/0/product
- Affected versions
- Not stated in this record
- Fixed versions
- Not stated in this record
- Prerequisites
- Not stated in this record
Linux
Source reference: /containers/cna/affected/1/product
- Affected versions
- Not stated in this record
- Fixed versions
- Not stated in this record
- Prerequisites
- Not stated in this record
Structured affected-version data
Original package identities and version rules from this source.
[
{
"repo": "https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git",
"vendor": "Linux",
"product": "Linux",
"versions": [
{
"status": "affected",
"version": "21e4902aea80ef35afc00ee8d2abdea4f519b7f7",
"lessThan": "22f313e211d58a66786c81487c3905fa5d4b2a8f",
"versionType": "git"
},
{
"status": "affected",
"version": "21e4902aea80ef35afc00ee8d2abdea4f519b7f7",
"lessThan": "ceac0de741bfb47ca255eee075257b3bb31f0651",
"versionType": "git"
}
],
"programFiles": [
"net/netlink/af_netlink.c",
"net/netlink/diag.c"
],
"defaultStatus": "unaffected"
},
{
"repo": "https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git",
"vendor": "Linux",
"product": "Linux",
"versions": [
{
"status": "affected",
"version": "4.0"
},
{
"status": "unaffected",
"version": "0",
"lessThan": "4.0",
"versionType": "semver"
},
{
"status": "unaffected",
"version": "7.2.8",
"versionType": "semver",
"lessThanOrEqual": "7.2.*"
},
{
"status": "unaffected",
"version": "7.3",
"versionType": "original_commit_for_fix",
"lessThanOrEqual": "*"
}
],
"programFiles": [
"net/netlink/af_netlink.c",
"net/netlink/diag.c"
],
"defaultStatus": "affected"
}
]- Related CVEs
- CVE-2026-98284
Source reference:
/cveMetadata/cveId
Publisher severity
No explicit severity was provided.
- Event
- #38362 · Revision 1
- Added to Heist Feed
- Publisher date