CVE-2026-43060: netfilter: nft_ct: drop pending enqueued packets on removal

Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-05-05 · updated 2026-10-19
Weakness: CWE-416

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfilter: nft_ct: drop pending enqueued packets on removal Packets sitting in nfqueue might hold a reference to: - templates that specify the conntrack zone, because a percpu area is used and module removal is possible. - conntrack timeout policies and helper, where object removal leave a stale reference. Since these objects can just go away, drop enqueued packets to avoid stale reference to them. If there is a need for finer grain removal, this logic can be revisited to make selective packet drop upon dependencies.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 4.19 before 5.10.253; from 5.11 before 5.15.203; from 5.16 before 6.1.167; from 6.2 before 6.6.130; from 6.7 before 6.12.78; from 6.13 before 6.18.20 — fixed in 5.10.253, 5.15.203, 6.1.167, 6.12.78, 6.18.20, 6.19.10

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.10.253, 5.15.203, 6.1.167, 6.12.78. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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