CVE-2026-72247

netfilter: nf_conncount: fix zone comparison in tuple dedup

HIGH
7.5
CVSS Score
Published: August 15, 2026 at 05:54 AM UTC
Updated: October 16, 2026 at 07:17 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorLinux Kernel

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Severity
HIGH7.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.7%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfilter: nf_conncount: fix zone comparison in tuple dedup The "already exists" dedup logic in __nf_conncount_add() decides whether a connection has already been counted and can be skipped instead of incrementing the connlimit count. It compares the conntrack zone of a list entry with the zone of the connection being added using nf_ct_zone_id() and nf_ct_zone_equal(), passing conn->zone.dir or zone->dir as the direction argument. Those helpers take enum ip_conntrack_dir values: IP_CT_DIR_ORIGINAL is 0 and IP_CT_DIR_REPLY is 1. However, zone->dir is a u8 bitmask: NF_CT_ZONE_DIR_ORIG is 1, NF_CT_ZONE_DIR_REPL is 2 and NF_CT_DEFAULT_ZONE_DIR is 3. Passing that bitmask as the enum direction shifts the meaning of every non-zero value. An ORIG-only zone passes 1 and is tested as REPLY, while REPL-only and default zones pass 2 or 3 and test bits beyond the valid direction range. In those cases nf_ct_zone_id() can fall back to NF_CT_DEFAULT_ZONE_ID instead of using the real zone id, so different zones can be treated as equal and dedup collapses to tuple equality alone. nf_conncount stores and compares the original-direction tuple for a connection. If an skb already has an attached conntrack entry, get_ct_or_tuple_from_skb() explicitly copies ct->tuplehash[IP_CT_DIR_ORIGINAL].tuple, regardless of the packet's ctinfo. Therefore the zone comparison in the tuple dedup path must use IP_CT_DIR_ORIGINAL as well; the zone direction bitmask describes where a zone id applies, not which direction this conncount tuple represents. Fix the two dedup comparisons by passing IP_CT_DIR_ORIGINAL directly. Do not special-case NF_CT_DEFAULT_ZONE_DIR and do not compare raw zone ids: using the existing helpers with IP_CT_DIR_ORIGINAL preserves the direction-aware NF_CT_DEFAULT_ZONE_ID fallback. A default bidirectional zone contains the ORIG bit, so it naturally returns the real zone id; reply-only zones continue to fall back for original-direction tuple comparisons.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

21ba8847f857028dc83a0f341e16ecc616e347404.14.924.18525e1dffed8711973f77412729621098a95238e575af3d78168e654a5cd8bbc4c774f97be836165f
Vendor states this is fixed in 35a56e2a46b90e6bd4ca816b80e9cb8d20dfc3ce (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 3cd9a5792cbea81139c24320986dd0db69e9b5d0 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 4f30a89c0ed2418719a1144881c2635b940b543d (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6ff07ac5405bea4d4ead3559fc123f987576424a (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 78b5d6dbc860776161f9e9206b06ff8a01f531ab (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 7bdc3c0985ecf17b957811fedcc684acdf698acc (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 82fc35e0da9a91db9a034f8311f18f77a599ae3f (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in f62c41b4910e65da396ec9a8c40c1fe7fe82e449 (fixed)
Affected range stops below 4.15, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Vendor states this is fixed in 4.18 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.10.261 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.15.212 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.1.178 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.12.97 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.18.40 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.6.145 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 7.1.5 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 7.2 (unaffected)

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet, and no fixed version or vendor advisory is recorded against it.

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitAutomatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

7.5HIGHLinux
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusRECEIVED

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