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CVE intelligence

CVE-2026-23231

Vulnerability intelligence

Published Mar 4, 2026Sources checked Oct 3, 2026
7.8HIGHCVSS out of 10
What this means

Review the available evidence

CVE-2026-23231 and is rated High severity with a CVSS score of 7.8. It is not in the current CISA KEV record we collected. That does not prove exploitation has not occurred.

Public exploit: Cataloged public exploit.

What to do next

Remediation and response

CISA KEVNot listedBased on the latest collected catalog
EPSS0.8%Estimated 30-day exploitation probability
Ransomware useNot markedCISA KEV ransomware field
Threat actors0Source-linked actor relationships
Overview

What is CVE-2026-23231?

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfilter: nf_tables: fix use-after-free in nf_tables_addchain() nf_tables_addchain() publishes the chain to table->chains via list_add_tail_rcu() (in nft_chain_add()) before registering hooks. If nf_tables_register_hook() then fails, the error path calls nft_chain_del() (list_del_rcu()) followed by nf_tables_chain_destroy() with no RCU grace period in between. This creates two use-after-free conditions: 1) Control-plane: nf_tables_dump_chains() traverses table->chains under rcu_read_lock(). A concurrent dump can still be walking the chain when the error path frees it. 2) Packet path: for NFPROTO_INET, nf_register_net_hook() briefly installs the IPv4 hook before IPv6 registration fails. Packets entering nft_do_chain() via the transient IPv4 hook can still be dereferencing chain->blob_gen_X when the error path frees the chain. Add synchronize_rcu() between nft_chain_del() and the chain destroy so that all RCU readers -- both dump threads and in-flight packet evaluation -- have finished before the chain is freed.