CVE-2026-99201
Received
Received - Intake
Netlink Information Disclosure in Linux Kernel
Vulnerability report for CVE-2026-99201, including description, CVSS score, EPSS score, affected products, exploitability, helpful resources, and attack-flow context.
Publication date: 2026-10-28
Last updated on: 2026-10-28
Assigner: kernel.org
Description
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
netlink: avoid hashing the network namespace pointer
The netlink rhashtable key includes a raw struct net pointer and a
user-controlled port ID. Both /proc/net/netlink and socket diagnostics
expose the table's bucket order. By binding and rebinding chosen
NETLINK_USERSOCK port IDs, an unprivileged reader can distinguish equal
buckets and recover the low bits of the Jenkins hash. Its 32-bit seed
and the limited set of kernel-image slides can then be searched offline
to recover the address of init_net.
Use the namespace's unique, non-address net_cookie in the comparison
key instead. It is assigned before the per-net initializers run and
remains unchanged for the namespace's lifetime. The lookup key and
object hash are still built by netlink_compare_arg_init(), keeping
lookup, insertion, removal and rehashing consistent while preserving
namespace separation. Neither public table walker needs to change.
Reading the socket's namespace cookie in netlink_compare() is safe
under RCU, including during namespace teardown. netlink_release()
removes the socket from the hash table and defers its final put with
call_rcu(). cleanup_net() runs the per-net exit methods and waits for
outstanding RCU callbacks with rcu_barrier() before freeing namespace
storage.
Unlike ns.ns_id, net_cookie is also available and initialized during
setup_net() in older stable kernels, making the change straightforward
to backport to v5.15 and later.
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
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Meta Information
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
KEV
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-UNKNOWN |
