CVE-2022-48935: linux kernel Use-After-Free — Fix

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfilter: nf_tables: unregister flowtable hooks on netns exit Unregister flowtable hooks before they are releases via nf_tables_flowtable_destroy() otherwise hook core reports UAF. BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in nf_hook_entries_grow+0x5a7/0x700 net/netfilter/core.c:142 net/netfilter/core.c:142 Read of size 4 at addr ffff8880736f7438 by task syz-executor579/3666 CPU: 0 PID: 3666 Comm: syz-executor579 Not tainted 5.16.0-rc5-syzkaller #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 01/01/2011 Call Trace: <TASK> __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:88 [inline] __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:88 [inline] lib/dump_stack.c:106 dump_stack_lvl+0x1dc/0x2d8 lib/dump_stack.c:106 lib/dump_stack.c:106 print_address_description+0x65/0x380 mm/kasan/report.c:247 mm/kasan/report.c:247 __kasan_report mm/kasan/report.c:433 [inline] __kasan_report mm/kasan/report.c:433 [inline] mm/kasan/report.c:450 kasan_report+0x19a/0x1f0 mm/kasan/report.c:450 mm/kasan/report.c:450 nf_hook_entries_grow+0x5a7/0x700 net/netfilter/core.c:142 net/netfilter/core.c:142 __nf_register_net_hook+0x27e/0x8d0 net/netfilter/core.c:429 net/netfilter/core.c:429 nf_register_net_hook+0xaa/0x180 net/netfilter/core.c:571 net/netfilter/core.c:571 nft_register_flowtable_net_hooks+0x3c5/0x730 net/netfilter/nf_tables_api.c:7232 net/netfilter/nf_tables_api.c:7232 nf_tables_newflowtable+0x2022/0x2cf0 net/netfilter/nf_tables_api.c:7430 net/netfilter/nf_tables_api.c:7430 nfnetlink_rcv_batch net/netfilter/nfnetlink.c:513 [inline] nfnetlink_rcv_skb_batch net/netfilter/nfnetlink.c:634 [inline] nfnetlink_rcv_batch net/netfilter/nfnetlink.c:513 [inline] net/netfilter/nfnetlink.c:652 nfnetlink_rcv_skb_batch net/netfilter/nfnetlink.c:634 [inline] net/netfilter/nfnetlink.c:652 nfnetlink_rcv+0x10e6/0x2550 net/netfilter/nfnetlink.c:652 net/netfilter/nfnetlink.c:652 __nft_release_hook() calls nft_unregister_flowtable_net_hooks() which only unregisters the hooks, then after RCU grace period, it is guaranteed that no packets add new entries to the flowtable (no flow offload rules and flowtable hooks are reachable from packet path), so it is safe to call nf_flow_table_free() which cleans up the remaining entries from the flowtable (both software and hardware) and it unbinds the flow_block.

Is your site exposed to CVE-2022-48935?

Run a free security scan — no signup, results in seconds.

CVSS v3.1 Score

5.5

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Weakness Type (CWE)

CWE-416 Use After Free

Affected Products

Vendor	Product	Versions
linux	linux_kernel	< 4.19.316
linux	linux_kernel	4.20 — 5.4.262
linux	linux_kernel	5.5 — 5.10.198
linux	linux_kernel	5.11 — 5.15.26
linux	linux_kernel	5.16 — 5.16.12

References

Advisories & Patches

https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6069da443bf65f513bb507bb21e2f87cfb1ad0b6 https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8ffb8ac3448845f65634889b051bd65e4dee484b https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b4fcc081e527aa2ce12e956912fc47e251f6bd27 https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e51f30826bc5384801df98d76109c94953d1df64

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2022-48935? +

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfilter: nf_tables: unregister flowtable hooks on netns exit Unregister flowtable hooks before they are releases via nf_tables_flowtable_destroy() otherwise hook core reports UAF. BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in nf_hook_entries_grow+0x5a7/0x700 net/netfilter/core.c:142 net/netfilter/core.c:142 Read of size 4 at addr ffff8880736f7438 by task syz-executor579/3666 CPU: 0 PID: 3666 Comm: syz-executor579 Not tainted 5.16.0-rc5-syzkaller #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 01/01/2011 Call Trace: <TASK> __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:88 [inline] __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:88 [inline] lib/dump_stack.c:106 dump_stack_lvl+0x1dc/0x2d8 lib/dump_stack.c:106 lib/dump_stack.c:106 print_address_description+0x65/0x380 mm/kasan/report.c:247 mm/kasan/report.c:247 __kasan_report mm/kasan/report.c:433 [inline] __kasan_report mm/kasan/report.c:433 [inline] mm/kasan/report.c:450 kasan_report+0x19a/0x1f0 mm/kasan/report.c:450 mm/kasan/report.c:450 nf_hook_entries_grow+0x5a7/0x700 net/netfilter/core.c:142 net/netfilter/core.c:142 __nf_register_net_hook+0x27e/0x8d0 net/netfilter/core.c:429 net/netfilter/core.c:429 nf_register_net_hook+0xaa/0x180 net/netfilter/core.c:571 net/netfilter/core.c:571 nft_register_flowtable_net_hooks+0x3c5/0x730 net/netfilter/nf_tables_api.c:7232 net/netfilter/nf_tables_api.c:7232 nf_tables_newflowtable+0x2022/0x2cf0 net/netfilter/nf_tables_api.c:7430 net/netfilter/nf_tables_api.c:7430 nfnetlink_rcv_batch net/netfilter/nfnetlink.c:513 [inline] nfnetlink_rcv_skb_batch net/netfilter/nfnetlink.c:634 [inline] nfnetlink_rcv_batch net/netfilter/nfnetlink.c:513 [inline] net/netfilter/nfnetlink.c:652 nfnetlink_rcv_skb_batch net/netfilter/nfnetlink.c:634 [inline] net/netfilter/nfnetlink.c:652 nfnetlink_rcv+0x10e6/0x2550 net/netfilter/nfnetlink.c:652 net/netfilter/nfnetlink.c:652 __nft_release_hook() calls nft_unregister_flowtable_net_hooks() which only unregisters the hooks, then after RCU grace period, it is guaranteed that no packets add new entries to the flowtable (no flow offload rules and flowtable hooks are reachable from packet path), so it is safe to call nf_flow_table_free() which cleans up the remaining entries from the flowtable (both software and hardware) and it unbinds the flow_block. It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.5 (MEDIUM).

How severe is CVE-2022-48935? +

CVE-2022-48935 has a CVSS v3.1 score of 5.5 out of 10, rated MEDIUM. This is a medium-severity vulnerability that should be remediated as part of regular maintenance.

What products are affected by CVE-2022-48935? +

CVE-2022-48935 affects products from linux, specifically: linux_kernel. Check the affected products table above for specific version ranges.

How do I check if I'm vulnerable to CVE-2022-48935? +

You can use Secably's free Website Scanner to check your website for known vulnerabilities. For infrastructure scanning, use the Port Scanner to identify exposed services that may be affected. Check the vendor advisories linked above for specific patch and version information.

Related Vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-55406

Buffa is a pure-Rust Protocol Buffers implementation with first-class protobuf editions support. Prior to 0.7.0, a soundness bug in the …

CVE-2026-6040

A heap use-after-free existed when importing the blank-width characters of an ODF number format. A position value read from the …

CVE-2025-24898

rust-openssl is a set of OpenSSL bindings for the Rust programming language. In affected versions `ssl::select_next_proto` can return a slice …

CVE-2025-31115

XZ Utils provide a general-purpose data-compression library plus command-line tools. In XZ Utils 5.3.3alpha to 5.8.0, the multithreaded .xz decoder …

CVE-2025-31498

c-ares is an asynchronous resolver library. From 1.32.3 through 1.34.4, there is a use-after-free in read_answers() when process_answer() may re-enqueue …

CVE-2025-4516

There is an issue in CPython when using `bytes.decode("unicode_escape", error="ignore|replace")`. If you are not using the "unicode_escape" encoding or an …

CVE-2022-48935