CVE-2026-23278: Linux Kernel

High severity, CVSS 7.8. EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfilter: nf_tables: always walk all pending catchall elements During transaction processing we might have more than one catchall element: 1 live catchall element and 1 pending element that is coming as part of the new batch. If the map holding the catchall elements is also going away, its required to toggle all catchall elements and not just the first viable candidate. Otherwise, we get: WARNING: ./include/net/netfilter/nf_tables.h:1281 at nft_data_release+0xb7/0xe0 [nf_tables], CPU#2: nft/1404 RIP: 0010:nft_data_release+0xb7/0xe0 [nf_tables] [..] __nft_set_elem_destroy+0x106/0x380 [nf_tables] nf_tables_abort_release+0x348/0x8d0 [nf_tables] nf_tables_abort+0xcf2/0x3ac0 [nf_tables] nfnetlink_rcv_batch+0x9c9/0x20e0 [..]

Affected products

• Linux Linux Kernel: from 4.19.316, before 4.20 (fixed in 4.20); from 5.4.262, before 5.5 (fixed in 5.5); from 5.10.188, before 5.11 (fixed in 5.11); from 5.15.121, before 5.16 (fixed in 5.16); from 6.1.36, before 6.2 (fixed in 6.2); from 6.3.10, before 6.4 (fixed in 6.4); …

Published 2026-03-20. Last modified 2026-07-04.