CVE-2023-4244
kernel: Use-after-free in nft_verdict_dump due to a race between set GC and transaction
Severity
ModerateRed Hat Product Security
CVSS 3.1
Review impact separately from score.
Published · August 28, 2023
Updated · July 29, 2026
Description
A use-after-free flaw was found in the Linux kernel’s nftables sub-component due to a race problem between the set GC and transaction in the Linux Kernel. This flaw allows a local attacker to crash the system due to a missing call to nft_set_elem_mark_busy, causing double deactivation of the element and possibly leading to a kernel information leak problem.
Statement
Exploiting this flaw will require CAP_NET_ADMIN access privilege in any user or network namespace.
And,
On non-containerized deployments of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, you can disable user namespaces by setting user.max_user_namespaces to 0:
$ echo "user.max_user_namespaces=0" > /etc/sysctl.d/userns.conf $ sysctl -p /etc/sysctl.d/userns.conf
On containerized deployments, such as Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, do not use this mitigation as the functionality is needed to be enabled.
CVSS score applicability
The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.
Mitigation
Mitigation for this issue is to skip loading the affected module "nftables" onto the system till we have a fix available, this can be done by a blacklist mechanism, this will ensure the driver is not loaded at the boot time.
How do I blacklist a kernel module to prevent it from loading automatically?
https://access.redhat.com/solutions/41278
CVSS / CWE
CVSS 3.1 · 7CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CWE-416 · Use After Free