CVE-2024-50038
kernel: netfilter: xtables: avoid NFPROTO_UNSPEC where needed
Severity
ModerateRed Hat Product Security
CVSS 3.1
Review impact separately from score.
Published · October 21, 2024
Updated · October 29, 2026
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
netfilter: xtables: avoid NFPROTO_UNSPEC where needed
syzbot managed to call xt_cluster match via ebtables:
WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 11 at net/netfilter/xt_cluster.c:72 xt_cluster_mt+0x196/0x780 [..] ebt_do_table+0x174b/0x2a40
Module registers to NFPROTO_UNSPEC, but it assumes ipv4/ipv6 packet processing. As this is only useful to restrict locally terminating TCP/UDP traffic, register this for ipv4 and ipv6 family only.
Pablo points out that this is a general issue, direct users of the set/getsockopt interface can call into targets/matches that were only intended for use with ip(6)tables.
Check all UNSPEC matches and targets for similar issues:
- matches and targets are fine except if they assume skb_network_header() is valid -- this is only true when called from inet layer: ip(6) stack pulls the ip/ipv6 header into linear data area.
- targets that return XT_CONTINUE or other xtables verdicts must be restricted too, they are incompatbile with the ebtables traverser, e.g. EBT_CONTINUE is a completely different value than XT_CONTINUE.
Most matches/targets are changed to register for NFPROTO_IPV4/IPV6, as they are provided for use by ip(6)tables.
The MARK target is also used by arptables, so register for NFPROTO_ARP too.
While at it, bail out if connbytes fails to enable the corresponding conntrack family.
This change passes the selftests in iptables.git.
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
No mitigation is specified in collected source.
CVSS / CWE
CVSS 3.1 · 5.5CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CWE-470 · Use of Externally-Controlled Input to Select Classes or Code ('Unsafe Reflection')