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CVE-2026-98284

Linux: netlink: do not free nlk->groups while lockless readers can use it

Linux LinuxOperating systems
CVSS
NoneNot scored
ExploitationNo known exploitationNot in CISA KEV, which does not prove it is unexploitedCISA KEV
Exploit odds (EPSS)0.16%Chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, higher than 5% of CVEs. Scored 23 Oct 2026FIRST EPSS
Fixed in22f313e211d58a66786c81487c3905fa5d4b2a8fFixed versionCVE List
Published6 Oct 2026Updated 19 Oct 2026CVE List

What fixes it

  • 22f313e211d58a66786c81487c3905fa5d4b2a8fLinuxCVE List

A fixed version on one release line is not the upgrade target for every line. Check your exact version and any vendor backports.

Description

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 kfree() done by krealloc().

  • Publish @groups before @ngroups, both with release semantics, and have

the lockless readers load @ngroups first. A reader can then never pair the new (bigger) size with the old (smaller) buffer, and a reader picking up the new pointer while still seeing the old size is guaranteed to see the initialized bitmap.

netlink_realloc_groups() is called from process context (bind() and setsockopt()), so kfree_rcu_mightsleep() can be used, once the table has been released.

Text from CVE List

Affected versions 6

  • Linuxaffected: 21e4902aea80ef35afc00ee8d2abdea4f519b7f7 before 22f313e211d58a66786c81487c3905fa5d4b2a8fCVE List
  • Linuxaffected: 21e4902aea80ef35afc00ee8d2abdea4f519b7f7 before ceac0de741bfb47ca255eee075257b3bb31f0651CVE List
  • Linuxaffected: 4.0CVE List
  • Linuxunaffected: all versions before 4.0CVE List
  • Linuxunaffected: 7.2.8 through 7.2.*CVE List
  • Linuxunaffected: 7.3CVE List

References 2