CVE-2026-98622
Full vulnerability record from the local CVENow database.
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/sched: act_ct: don't WARN on benign flow_offload_alloc() failure flow_offload_alloc() returns NULL when the conntrack entry is dying (e.g. raced with a conntrack flush) or when the GFP_ATOMIC allocation fails; both are expected under load and neither is a kernel bug. This path runs from softirq on every committed packet, so with panic_on_warn=1 an unprivileged user can panic the box just by racing a conntrack flush against a `tc ... action ct commit` classifier. Reproduced with a custom repro under QEMU: a small, fixed set of UDP flows through `tc filter ... action ct commit` on lo, raced against threads flooding bare ctnetlink CT_DELETE (flush) requests. Hits WARNING: net/sched/act_ct.c:437 (tcf_ct_flow_table_add(), inlined into tcf_ct_act() in this build) within ~15s on the unpatched kernel; same setup is clean on the patched kernel. The fix itself is behavior-preserving: both branches already did `goto err_alloc` before and after, only the WARN is removed.
Severity
Not scored
CVSS score
Not available
Vulnerability status
Received
Source identifier
416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
Published
2026-10-18 16:17:15.117000
Last modified
2026-10-19 10:19:26.330000
View original CVE JSON
{
"id": "CVE-2026-98622",
"sourceIdentifier": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
"published": "2026-10-18T16:17:15.117",
"lastModified": "2026-10-19T10:19:26.330",
"vulnStatus": "Received",
"cveTags": [],
"descriptions": [
{
"lang": "en",
"value": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nnet/sched: act_ct: don't WARN on benign flow_offload_alloc() failure\n\nflow_offload_alloc() returns NULL when the conntrack entry is dying\n(e.g. raced with a conntrack flush) or when the GFP_ATOMIC allocation\nfails; both are expected under load and neither is a kernel bug. This\npath runs from softirq on every committed packet, so with\npanic_on_warn=1 an unprivileged user can panic the box just by racing\na conntrack flush against a `tc ... action ct commit` classifier.\n\nReproduced with a custom repro under QEMU: a small, fixed set of UDP\nflows through `tc filter ... action ct commit` on lo, raced against\nthreads flooding bare ctnetlink CT_DELETE (flush) requests. Hits\nWARNING: net/sched/act_ct.c:437 (tcf_ct_flow_table_add(), inlined\ninto tcf_ct_act() in this build) within ~15s on the unpatched kernel;\nsame setup is clean on the patched kernel. The fix itself is\nbehavior-preserving: both branches already did `goto err_alloc`\nbefore and after, only the WARN is removed."
}
],
"affected": [
{
"source": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
"affectedData": [
{
"vendor": "Linux",
"product": "Linux",
"defaultStatus": "unaffected",
"programFiles": [
"net/sched/act_ct.c"
],
"repo": "https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git",
"versions": [
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"status": "affected"
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{
"version": "0",
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"versionType": "semver",
"status": "unaffected"
},
{
"version": "5.10.271",
"lessThanOrEqual": "5.10.*",
"versionType": "semver",
"status": "unaffected"
},
{
"version": "5.15.222",
"lessThanOrEqual": "5.15.*",
"versionType": "semver",
"status": "unaffected"
},
{
"version": "6.1.189",
"lessThanOrEqual": "6.1.*",
"versionType": "semver",
"status": "unaffected"
},
{
"version": "6.6.158",
"lessThanOrEqual": "6.6.*",
"versionType": "semver",
"status": "unaffected"
},
{
"version": "6.12.112",
"lessThanOrEqual": "6.12.*",
"versionType": "semver",
"status": "unaffected"
},
{
"version": "6.18.55",
"lessThanOrEqual": "6.18.*",
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},
{
"version": "7.2.9",
"lessThanOrEqual": "7.2.*",
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},
{
"version": "7.3",
"lessThanOrEqual": "*",
"versionType": "original_commit_for_fix",
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}
]
}
]
}
],
"metrics": {},
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