netdev - [PATCH net 1/1] netfilter: nf_tables: fix inverted genmask check in nft_map_catchall

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Message-ID: <20260205074450.3187-2-fw@strlen.de>
Date: Thu,  5 Feb 2026 08:44:50 +0100
From: Florian Westphal <fw@...len.de>
To: <netdev@...r.kernel.org>
Cc: Paolo Abeni <pabeni@...hat.com>,
	"David S. Miller" <davem@...emloft.net>,
	Eric Dumazet <edumazet@...gle.com>,
	Jakub Kicinski <kuba@...nel.org>,
	<netfilter-devel@...r.kernel.org>,
	pablo@...filter.org
Subject: [PATCH net 1/1] netfilter: nf_tables: fix inverted genmask check in nft_map_catchall_activate()

From: Andrew Fasano <andrew.fasano@...t.gov>

nft_map_catchall_activate() has an inverted element activity check
compared to its non-catchall counterpart nft_mapelem_activate() and
compared to what is logically required.

nft_map_catchall_activate() is called from the abort path to re-activate
catchall map elements that were deactivated during a failed transaction.
It should skip elements that are already active (they don't need
re-activation) and process elements that are inactive (they need to be
restored). Instead, the current code does the opposite: it skips inactive
elements and processes active ones.

Compare the non-catchall activate callback, which is correct:

  nft_mapelem_activate():
    if (nft_set_elem_active(ext, iter->genmask))
        return 0;   /* skip active, process inactive */

With the buggy catchall version:

  nft_map_catchall_activate():
    if (!nft_set_elem_active(ext, genmask))
        continue;   /* skip inactive, process active */

The consequence is that when a DELSET operation is aborted,
nft_setelem_data_activate() is never called for the catchall element.
For NFT_GOTO verdict elements, this means nft_data_hold() is never
called to restore the chain->use reference count. Each abort cycle
permanently decrements chain->use. Once chain->use reaches zero,
DELCHAIN succeeds and frees the chain while catchall verdict elements
still reference it, resulting in a use-after-free.

This is exploitable for local privilege escalation from an unprivileged
user via user namespaces + nftables on distributions that enable
CONFIG_USER_NS and CONFIG_NF_TABLES.

Fix by removing the negation so the check matches nft_mapelem_activate():
skip active elements, process inactive ones.

Fixes: 628bd3e49cba ("netfilter: nf_tables: drop map element references from preparation phase")
Signed-off-by: Andrew Fasano <andrew.fasano@...t.gov>
Signed-off-by: Florian Westphal <fw@...len.de>
---
 net/netfilter/nf_tables_api.c | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/net/netfilter/nf_tables_api.c b/net/netfilter/nf_tables_api.c
index 729a92781a1a..be92750e2af3 100644
--- a/net/netfilter/nf_tables_api.c
+++ b/net/netfilter/nf_tables_api.c
@@ -5914,7 +5914,7 @@ static void nft_map_catchall_activate(const struct nft_ctx *ctx,

 	list_for_each_entry(catchall, &set->catchall_list, list) {
 		ext = nft_set_elem_ext(set, catchall->elem);
-		if (!nft_set_elem_active(ext, genmask))
+		if (nft_set_elem_active(ext, genmask))
 			continue;

 		nft_clear(ctx->net, ext);
-- 
2.52.0