KernelScan.io

CRITICAL

netfilter Pipapo Matching

CVE-2026-43114

CVSS 9.4 / 10.0 NVD

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:L

KernelScan AI3.8LOW

01

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfilter: nft_set_pipapo_avx2: don't return non-matching entry on expiry New test case fails unexpectedly when avx2 matching functions are used. The test first loads a ranomly generated pipapo set with 'ipv4 . port' key, i.e. nft -f foo. This works. Then, it reloads the set after a flush: (echo flush set t s; cat foo) | nft -f - This is expected to work, because its the same set after all and it was already loaded once. But with avx2, this fails: nft reports a clashing element. The reported clash is of following form: We successfully re-inserted a . b c . d Then we try to insert a . d avx2 finds the already existing a . d, which (due to 'flush set') is marked as invalid in the new generation. It skips the element and moves to next. Due to incorrect masking, the skip-step finds the next matching element *only considering the first field*, i.e. we return the already reinserted "a . b", even though the last field is different and the entry should not have been matched. No such error is reported for the generic c implementation (no avx2) or when the last field has to use the 'nft_pipapo_avx2_lookup_slow' fallback. Bisection points to 7711f4bb4b36 ("netfilter: nft_set_pipapo: fix range overlap detection") but that fix merely uncovers this bug. Before this commit, the wrong element is returned, but erronously reported as a full, identical duplicate. The root-cause is too early return in the avx2 match functions. When we process the last field, we should continue to process data until the entire input size has been consumed to make sure no stale bits remain in the map.

02

Engine v0.2.0

Risk summary

Systems using nftables with pipapo sets on AVX2-capable CPUs may experience incorrect firewall rule matching. This could allow unintended network traffic to pass through or be blocked incorrectly. The vulnerability requires administrative privileges to exploit and primarily affects network filtering accuracy rather than system security.

Affectednet/netfilter/nft_set_pipapo_avx2.c (netfilter)

Vulnerability analysis

The root cause is premature return in AVX2-optimized lookup functions when processing the last field of pipapo set elements. Instead of consuming the entire input to clear stale bits, the functions returned immediately, causing subsequent lookups to match elements based only on partial field comparison. The fix ensures all input data is processed by storing results in a variable rather than returning early, preventing stale bit contamination that led to false positive matches.

03

BranchFixed inPatch commit
5.105.10.258f8c39983fc9c
5.155.15.209c7babe2f28b5
6.16.1.1751c43f0dd8691
6.126.12.833d53f9aafd46
6.186.18.2407de44424bb7
6.196.19.140abbc43f71d9
6.66.6.136fa4f1f52528c
mainline7.0d3c0037ffe12