CVE-2024-41040
CriticalCVSS 9.8Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk20th percentile - higher than 20% of all known CVEs
Summary
A use-after-free vulnerability was found in the Linux kernel's net/sched module related to resolving conntrack clashes. After a clash is resolved, the ct object may be freed but still passed to tcf_ct_flow_table_process_conn, leading to a read-after-free.
Risk Assessment
An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to cause a kernel panic or potentially escalate privileges, compromising system integrity and availability.
Recommendation
Immediately update the Linux kernel to a patched version that re-fetches ct from skb after confirming conntrack. Monitor your distribution for the availability of the fix.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
See all- CVE-2026-43603Medium
A NULL pointer dereference in the Linux GPU driver could potentially lead to a kernel crash. This may result in a denial of service on the affected system.
- CVE-2026-99270High
A use-after-free (UAF) vulnerability exists in the Linux kernel's reqsk_timer_handler() function. When TCP socket migration fails at inet_ehash_insert(), the code jumps to the no_ownership label and immediately frees the new reqsk via __reqsk_free() without stopping its timer, potentially leading to a UAF.
- CVE-2026-99269High
In the Linux kernel sched_ext scheduler, a task can be found on a non-local DSQ while the CPU that dispatched it is still running ops.dequeue() and hasn't cleared SCX_OPSS_DISPATCHING. The DSQ consume and move paths don't wait for dispatch to finish and can operate on the task concurrently with the dispatcher. The fix adds scx_wait_dispatching() before operating on the task.
- CVE-2026-99268Unknown
In io_uring with IORING_SETUP_DEFER_TASKRUN, completions are queued as local work and only become CQEs when the submitter enters the kernel to wait for events. io_uring_poll() reports EPOLLIN if local work is pending, but only if the work exists at call time; after DEFER_TASKRUN was added, the ->poll_wq wakeup was replaced by directly waking the submitter, so poll() can sleep despite pending work. The fix wakes ->poll_wq when the first entry is put on the work list, using an RCU callback when needed.
- CVE-2026-99267Unknown
In io_uring NAPI with dynamic tracking, a NAPI id not seen for a minute should be dropped from the ring's busy-poll list. However, the timeout is computed incorrectly — SEC_CONVERSION is used instead of the number of jiffies per second, giving about eight years for HZ=1000 and overflowing on 32-bit systems. As a result, entries are never removed and every wait polls all historical ids.
- CVE-2026-99266Unknown
In io_uring zcrx, io_zcrx_queue_cqe() computes the buffer offset in its area from net_iov_idx(), which is an unsigned int, so the shift is done in 32 bits and only the result is widened to the u64 placed in the CQE. An area can be up to 1 TB, so for every niov beyond the first 4 GB the CQE points the application at a buffer 4 GB (or a multiple) below the correct one. The application reads wrong data and returns a buffer it doesn't own via the refill queue while the real one is never given back.
- CVE-2026-99265Unknown
In io_uring/openclose, io_pipe_fixed() installs both ends of the pipe in the fixed file table, drops ->uring_lock, and copies the slot numbers to the application. If that faults, it takes the lock again and removes whatever is in these slots. If the request is run by io-wq, the lock really is dropped and the slots are visible to others; by the time the error path gets to them, they may have been closed and reused (by IORING_OP_CLOSE, direct open/accept, or IORING_REGISTER_FILES_UPDATE), causing removal of a file unrelated to the failed request. The fix performs the copy with the lock held.
- CVE-2026-99264High
A bug was fixed in the Linux kernel's io_uring/net handling of recv retries on uncommitted buffers. When a receive was retried after a partial transfer, the kernel could hand out buffer memory that the retried request was still writing to, causing data overwrites. The request is now completed with the bytes received instead of retried, and MSG_WAITALL is no longer honoured for incremental buffers or multi-buffer bundles.
- CVE-2026-99263Unknown
In io_uring/poll, if a wakeup sets IO_POLL_RETRY_FLAG between the owning task consuming the existing instance of IO_POLL_RETRY_FLAG and the loop check in io_poll_check_events(), request processing stalls until an unrelated wakeup arrives. The fix uses atomic_cmpxchg instead of atomic_sub_return to guarantee both the count v and poll_refs are 0 and no wakeups are missed.
- CVE-2026-99262Unknown
In io_uring/timeout, an IORING_OP_TIMEOUT run by io-wq due to IOSQE_ASYNC has the same problem as poll, futex, and waitid. io_wq_submit_work() checks IO_WQ_WORK_CANCEL only once before issuing the request; a cancel in between flags the work, gets -EALREADY, and searches ->timeout_list in vain while the worker adds the request and starts the timer. Nobody checks the flag again and the timeout runs its course, and at ring exit a task can get stuck for the full duration. The fix checks the flag under ->timeout_lock and fails the request if set.
Original NVD description (English source)
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/sched: Fix UAF when resolving a clash KASAN reports the following UAF: BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in tcf_ct_flow_table_process_conn+0x12b/0x380 [act_ct] Read of size 1 at addr ffff888c07603600 by task handler130/6469 Call Trace: <IRQ> dump_stack_lvl+0x48/0x70 print_address_description.constprop.0+0x33/0x3d0 print_report+0xc0/0x2b0 kasan_report+0xd0/0x120 __asan_load1+0x6c/0x80 tcf_ct_flow_table_process_conn+0x12b/0x380 [act_ct] tcf_ct_act+0x886/0x1350 [act_ct] tcf_action_exec+0xf8/0x1f0 fl_classify+0x355/0x360 [cls_flower] __tcf_classify+0x1fd/0x330 tcf_classify+0x21c/0x3c0 sch_handle_ingress.constprop.0+0x2c5/0x500 __netif_receive_skb_core.constprop.0+0xb25/0x1510 __netif_receive_skb_list_core+0x220/0x4c0 netif_receive_skb_list_internal+0x446/0x620 napi_complete_done+0x157/0x3d0 gro_cell_poll+0xcf/0x100 __napi_poll+0x65/0x310 net_rx_action+0x30c/0x5c0 __do_softirq+0x14f/0x491 __irq_exit_rcu+0x82/0xc0 irq_exit_rcu+0xe/0x20 common_interrupt+0xa1/0xb0 </IRQ> <TASK> asm_common_interrupt+0x27/0x40 Allocated by task 6469: kasan_save_stack+0x38/0x70 kasan_set_track+0x25/0x40 kasan_save_alloc_info+0x1e/0x40 __kasan_krealloc+0x133/0x190 krealloc+0xaa/0x130 nf_ct_ext_add+0xed/0x230 [nf_conntrack] tcf_ct_act+0x1095/0x1350 [act_ct] tcf_action_exec+0xf8/0x1f0 fl_classify+0x355/0x360 [cls_flower] __tcf_classify+0x1fd/0x330 tcf_classify+0x21c/0x3c0 sch_handle_ingress.constprop.0+0x2c5/0x500 __netif_receive_skb_core.constprop.0+0xb25/0x1510 __netif_receive_skb_list_core+0x220/0x4c0 netif_receive_skb_list_internal+0x446/0x620 napi_complete_done+0x157/0x3d0 gro_cell_poll+0xcf/0x100 __napi_poll+0x65/0x310 net_rx_action+0x30c/0x5c0 __do_softirq+0x14f/0x491 Freed by task 6469: kasan_save_stack+0x38/0x70 kasan_set_track+0x25/0x40 kasan_save_free_info+0x2b/0x60 ____kasan_slab_free+0x180/0x1f0 __kasan_slab_free+0x12/0x30 slab_free_freelist_hook+0xd2/0x1a0 __kmem_cache_free+0x1a2/0x2f0 kfree+0x78/0x120 nf_conntrack_free+0x74/0x130 [nf_conntrack] nf_ct_destroy+0xb2/0x140 [nf_conntrack] __nf_ct_resolve_clash+0x529/0x5d0 [nf_conntrack] nf_ct_resolve_clash+0xf6/0x490 [nf_conntrack] __nf_conntrack_confirm+0x2c6/0x770 [nf_conntrack] tcf_ct_act+0x12ad/0x1350 [act_ct] tcf_action_exec+0xf8/0x1f0 fl_classify+0x355/0x360 [cls_flower] __tcf_classify+0x1fd/0x330 tcf_classify+0x21c/0x3c0 sch_handle_ingress.constprop.0+0x2c5/0x500 __netif_receive_skb_core.constprop.0+0xb25/0x1510 __netif_receive_skb_list_core+0x220/0x4c0 netif_receive_skb_list_internal+0x446/0x620 napi_complete_done+0x157/0x3d0 gro_cell_poll+0xcf/0x100 __napi_poll+0x65/0x310 net_rx_action+0x30c/0x5c0 __do_softirq+0x14f/0x491 The ct may be dropped if a clash has been resolved but is still passed to the tcf_ct_flow_table_process_conn function for further usage. This issue can be fixed by retrieving ct from skb again after confirming conntrack.
Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS

