CVE-2026-97608: Linux

High severity, CVSS 7.0. EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfilter: nf_log: unregister loggers before per-net teardown nf_log_syslog and nfnetlink_log unregister their per-network namespace operations before unregistering their global logger backends. This leaves a window where a sysctl or netlink writer can rebind the still- registered logger after the per-net pre-exit callback cleared the old selection. The race looks like this: CPU 0 CPU 1 ---- ---- unregister_pernet_subsys() nf_log_unset(net, logger) net->nf.nf_loggers[pf] = NULL lock nf_log_mutex find logger in loggers[][] net->nf.nf_loggers[pf] = logger unlock nf_log_mutex nf_log_unregister(logger) lock nf_log_mutex loggers[pf][type] = NULL unlock nf_log_mutex synchronize_rcu() module exit returns module core frees backend memory Later, a sysctl read or packet logging operation can dereference the stale per-net logger pointer. Fix this by unregistering the global logger backends before tearing down per-net state. Once the global registrations are gone, later writers can no longer rebind the logger. unregister_pernet_subsys() already waits for an RCU grace period after the pre-exit callback clears the per-net selection, while nf_log_unregister() continues to cover readers of the global logger table. Apply this ordering fix to both nf_log backends that combine per-net teardown with global logger registration.

Affected products

• Linux Linux: from 3.10, before 5.15.222 (fixed in 5.15.222); from 5.16, before 6.1.189 (fixed in 6.1.189); from 6.2, before 6.6.158 (fixed in 6.6.158); from 6.7, before 6.12.111 (fixed in 6.12.111); from 6.13, before 6.18.53 (fixed in 6.18.53); from 6.19, before 7.2.7 (fixed in 7.2.7)

Published 2026-09-25. Last modified 2026-10-03.