[PATCH net 05/12] netfilter: nf_log: unregister loggers before per-net teardown
From: Pablo Neira Ayuso <pablo@netfilter.org>
Date: 2026-09-03 00:42:03
Also in:
netfilter-devel
Subsystem:
netfilter, networking [general], the rest · Maintainers:
Pablo Neira Ayuso, Florian Westphal, "David S. Miller", Eric Dumazet, Jakub Kicinski, Paolo Abeni, Linus Torvalds
From: Chengfeng Ye <redacted>
nf_log_syslog and nfnetlink_log unregister their per-network namespace
operations before unregistering their global logger backends. This
leaves a window where a sysctl or netlink writer can rebind the still-
registered logger after the per-net pre-exit callback cleared the old
selection.
The race looks like this:
CPU 0 CPU 1
---- ----
unregister_pernet_subsys()
nf_log_unset(net, logger)
net->nf.nf_loggers[pf] = NULL
lock nf_log_mutex
find logger in loggers[][]
net->nf.nf_loggers[pf] = logger
unlock nf_log_mutex
nf_log_unregister(logger)
lock nf_log_mutex
loggers[pf][type] = NULL
unlock nf_log_mutex
synchronize_rcu()
module exit returns
module core frees backend memory
Later, a sysctl read or packet logging operation can dereference the
stale per-net logger pointer.
Fix this by unregistering the global logger backends before tearing down
per-net state. Once the global registrations are gone, later writers can
no longer rebind the logger. unregister_pernet_subsys() already waits
for an RCU grace period after the pre-exit callback clears the per-net
selection, while nf_log_unregister() continues to cover readers of the
global logger table.
Apply this ordering fix to both nf_log backends that combine per-net
teardown with global logger registration.
Fixes: 5b023fc8d8e0 ("netfilter: enable per netns support for nf_loggers")
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Chengfeng Ye <redacted>
Signed-off-by: Pablo Neira Ayuso <pablo@netfilter.org>
---
net/netfilter/nf_log_syslog.c | 2 +-
net/netfilter/nfnetlink_log.c | 2 +-
2 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/net/netfilter/nf_log_syslog.c b/net/netfilter/nf_log_syslog.c
index f24288088c0d..c3fd398ffcd7 100644
--- a/net/netfilter/nf_log_syslog.c
+++ b/net/netfilter/nf_log_syslog.c@@ -1073,12 +1073,12 @@ static int __init nf_log_syslog_init(void) static void __exit nf_log_syslog_exit(void) { - unregister_pernet_subsys(&nf_log_syslog_net_ops); nf_log_unregister(&nf_ip_logger); nf_log_unregister(&nf_arp_logger); nf_log_unregister(&nf_ip6_logger); nf_log_unregister(&nf_netdev_logger); nf_log_unregister(&nf_bridge_logger); + unregister_pernet_subsys(&nf_log_syslog_net_ops); } module_init(nf_log_syslog_init);
diff --git a/net/netfilter/nfnetlink_log.c b/net/netfilter/nfnetlink_log.c
index 6c7fa2ed34f5..9d7fec570abe 100644
--- a/net/netfilter/nfnetlink_log.c
+++ b/net/netfilter/nfnetlink_log.c@@ -1233,8 +1233,8 @@ static void __exit nfnetlink_log_fini(void) { nfnetlink_subsys_unregister(&nfulnl_subsys); netlink_unregister_notifier(&nfulnl_rtnl_notifier); - unregister_pernet_subsys(&nfnl_log_net_ops); nf_log_unregister(&nfulnl_logger); + unregister_pernet_subsys(&nfnl_log_net_ops); } MODULE_DESCRIPTION("netfilter userspace logging");
--
2.47.3