In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
netfilter: ebt_nflog: pin the NFLOG backend
nf_log_unregister() runs after the per-net teardown so its final RCU grace period also drains readers that obtained the logger from a per-net binding. However, ebt_nflog passes an explicit ULOG log type to nf_log_packet() without holding a reference on the selected logger module, unlike the xt_NFLOG and nft_log frontends.
An ebtables nflog rule can therefore remain callable while nfnetlink_log is unloaded. The resulting interleaving is:
CPU 0 CPU 1 nfnetlink_log_fini() unregister_pernet_subsys() kfree(nfnl_log_pernet(net)) ebt_nflog_tg() nf_log_packet() nfulnl_log_packet() instance_lookup_get_rcu()
The global ULOG logger is still registered at this point, so CPU 1 dereferences the per-net state after CPU 0 has freed it. KASAN reported:
BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in instance_lookup_get_rcu Read of size 8 at addr ff110001052e6210 by task poc/92 Call Trace: instance_lookup_get_rcu+0x1ce/0x1f0 [nfnetlink_log] nfulnl_log_packet+0x248/0x2fb0 [nfnetlink_log] nf_log_packet+0x204/0x300 ebt_nflog_tg+0x351/0x550 ebt_do_table+0xedf/0x22b0 Allocated by task 90: __kmalloc_noprof+0x186/0x470 ops_init+0x6d/0x420 register_pernet_operations+0x2f6/0x670 register_pernet_subsys+0x23/0x40 Freed by task 93: kfree+0x131/0x3c0 ops_undo_list+0x3e3/0x700 unregister_pernet_operations+0x232/0x490 unregister_pernet_subsys+0x1c/0x30 nfnetlink_log_fini+0x34/0x450 [nfnetlink_log]
Acquire the ULOG logger module reference when an ebt_nflog rule is validated and release it when the rule is destroyed. Request the NFLOG backend for legacy callers when needed, matching xt_NFLOG. This prevents module teardown until all ebt_nflog rules have stopped using the logger.