In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

netfilter: nft_set_pipapo: split gc into unlink and reclaim phase

Yiming Qian reports Use-after-free in the pipapo set type:
Under a large number of expired elements, commit-time GC can run for a very
long time in a non-preemptible context, triggering soft lockup warnings and
RCU stall reports (local denial of service).

We must split GC in an unlink and a reclaim phase.

We cannot queue elements for freeing until pointers have been swapped.
Expired elements are still exposed to both the packet path and userspace
dumpers via the live copy of the data structure.

call_rcu() does not protect us: dump operations or element lookups starting
after call_rcu has fired can still observe the free'd element, unless the
commit phase has made enough progress to swap the clone and live pointers
before any new reader has picked up the old version.

This a similar approach as done recently for the rbtree backend in commit
35f83a75529a ("netfilter: nft_set_rbtree: don't gc elements on insert").

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Wed, 25 Mar 2026 10:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfilter: nft_set_pipapo: split gc into unlink and reclaim phase Yiming Qian reports Use-after-free in the pipapo set type: Under a large number of expired elements, commit-time GC can run for a very long time in a non-preemptible context, triggering soft lockup warnings and RCU stall reports (local denial of service). We must split GC in an unlink and a reclaim phase. We cannot queue elements for freeing until pointers have been swapped. Expired elements are still exposed to both the packet path and userspace dumpers via the live copy of the data structure. call_rcu() does not protect us: dump operations or element lookups starting after call_rcu has fired can still observe the free'd element, unless the commit phase has made enough progress to swap the clone and live pointers before any new reader has picked up the old version. This a similar approach as done recently for the rbtree backend in commit 35f83a75529a ("netfilter: nft_set_rbtree: don't gc elements on insert").
Title netfilter: nft_set_pipapo: split gc into unlink and reclaim phase
First Time appeared Linux
Linux linux Kernel
CPEs cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Linux
Linux linux Kernel
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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: Linux

Published:

Updated: 2026-03-25T10:27:36.854Z

Reserved: 2026-01-13T15:37:45.999Z

Link: CVE-2026-23351

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-03-25T11:16:33.450

Modified: 2026-03-25T11:16:33.450

Link: CVE-2026-23351

cve-icon Redhat

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cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

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