CVE-2026-53212

About vulnerability

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

netfilter: nft_tunnel: fix use-after-free on object destroy

nft_tunnel_obj_destroy() calls metadata_dst_free() which directly kfree()s the metadata_dst, ignoring the dst_entry refcount. Packets that took a reference via dst_hold() in nft_tunnel_obj_eval() and are still queued (e.g. in a netem qdisc) are left with a dangling pointer. When these packets are eventually dequeued, dst_release() operates on freed memory.

Replace metadata_dst_free() with dst_release() so the metadata_dst is freed only after all references are dropped. The dst subsystem already handles metadata_dst cleanup in dst_destroy() when DST_METADATA is set.

Affected product:

AlmaLinux 9.2 ESU , TuxCare 9.6 ESU

Affected packages:

kernel @ 5.14.0 (+1 more)

Live-patch status from KernelCare for each operating system.