CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2026-43116 — Linux Linux Kernel security vulnerability

High CVSS 7.8

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfilter: ctnetlink: ensure safe access to master conntrack Holding reference on the expectation is not sufficient, the master conntrack object can just go away, making exp->master invalid. To access exp->master safely: - Grab the nf_conntrack_expect_lock, this gets serialized with clean_from_lists() which also holds this lock when the master conntrack goes away. - Hold reference on master conntrack via nf_conntrack_find_get(). Not so easy since the master tuple to look up for the master conntrack is not available in the existing problematic paths. This patch goes for extending the nf_conntrack_expect_lock section to address this issue for simplicity, in the cases that are described below this is just slightly extending the lock section. The add expectation command already holds a reference to the master conntrack from ctnetlink_create_expect(). However, the delete expectation command needs to grab the spinlock before looking up for the expectation. Expand the existing spinlock section to address this to cover the expectation lookup. Note that, the nf_ct_expect_iterate_net() calls already grabs the spinlock while…

Severity
High
CVSS
7.8 (3.1)
Published
2026-05-06
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
linux/kernel
Weaknesses
CWE-362

Affected products

  • linux / linux_kernel
  • linux / linux_kernel / 7.0

Showing 2 representative product identities from 7 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Race condition, TOCTOU, and lifecycle synchronization

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Map concurrent actors, shared state, lock boundaries, signals, callbacks, retries, and check-then-use sequences in the affected path.
  • Determine whether untrusted users can influence timing, object names, filesystem state, or repeated state transitions.
  • Identify clustered and multi-process behavior that repository-local tests may not represent.

Remediate safely

  • Make the sensitive state transition atomic or protect it with a consistently ordered synchronization primitive.
  • Perform authorization and invariant checks on the same authoritative object and transaction used for the operation.
  • Use unique private resources, safe ownership transfer, and idempotent operations; add deterministic concurrency regression tests.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

The detailed catalog view below loads this exact record, its source evidence, and the full seven-phase agentic change plan.