medium 5.5

CVE-2024-42270 json

netfilter: iptables: Fix null-ptr-deref in iptable_nat_table_init().

published 2024-08-17 2 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2024-39493

cvss: 5.5; version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.2%; EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 13%
public exploits: 0; none known

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

We had a report that iptables-restore sometimes triggered null-ptr-deref at boot time. [0]

The problem is that iptable_nat_table_init() is exposed to user space before the kernel fully initialises netns.

In the small race window, a user could call iptable_nat_table_init() that accesses net_generic(net, iptable_nat_net_id), which is available only after registering iptable_nat_net_ops.

Let's call register_pernet_subsys() before xt_register_template().

[0]: bpfilter: Loaded bpfilter_umh pid 11702 Started bpfilter BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000013 PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode PF: error_code(0x0002) - not-present page PGD 0 P4D 0 PREEMPT SMP NOPTI CPU: 2 PID: 11879 Comm: iptables-restor Not tainted 6.1.92-99.174.amzn2023.x86_64 #1 Hardware name: Amazon EC2 c6i.4xlarge/, BIOS 1.0 10/16/2017 RIP: 0010:iptable_nat_table_init (net/ipv4/netfilter/iptable_nat.c:87 net/ipv4/netfilter/iptable_nat.c:121) iptable_nat Code: 10 4c 89 f6 48 89 ef e8 0b 19 bb ff 41 89 c4 85 c0 75 38 41 83 c7 01 49 83 c6 28 41 83 ff 04 75 dc 48 8b 44 24 08 48 8b 0c 24 <48> 89 08 4c 89 ef e8 a2 3b a2 cf 48 83 c4 10 44 89 e0 5b 5d 41 5c RSP: 0018:ffffbef902843cd0 EFLAGS: 00010246 RAX: 0000000000000013 RBX: ffff9f4b052caa20 RCX: ffff9f4b20988d80 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000064 RDI: ffffffffc04201c0 RBP: ffff9f4b29394000 R08: ffff9f4b07f77258 R09: ffff9f4b07f77240 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: ffff9f4b09635388 R12: 0000000000000000 R13: ffff9f4b1a3c6c00 R14: ffff9f4b20988e20 R15: 0000000000000004 FS: 00007f6284340000(0000) GS:ffff9f51fe280000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 0000000000000013 CR3: 00000001d10a6005 CR4: 00000000007706e0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 PKRU: 55555554 Call Trace: <TASK> ? show_trace_log_lvl (arch/x86/kernel/dumpstack.c:259) ? show_trace_log_lvl (arch/x86/kernel/dumpstack.c:259) ? xt_find_table_lock (net/netfilter/x_tables.c:1259) ? __die_body.cold (arch/x86/kernel/dumpstack.c:478 arch/x86/kernel/dumpstack.c:420) ? page_fault_oops (arch/x86/mm/fault.c:727) ? exc_page_fault (./arch/x86/include/asm/irqflags.h:40 ./arch/x86/include/asm/irqflags.h:75 arch/x86/mm/fault.c:1470 arch/x86/mm/fault.c:1518) ? asm_exc_page_fault (./arch/x86/include/asm/idtentry.h:570) ? iptable_nat_table_init (net/ipv4/netfilter/iptable_nat.c:87 net/ipv4/netfilter/iptable_nat.c:121) iptable_nat xt_find_table_lock (net/netfilter/x_tables.c:1259) xt_request_find_table_lock (net/netfilter/x_tables.c:1287) get_info (net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_tables.c:965) ? security_capable (security/security.c:809 (discriminator 13)) ? ns_capable (kernel/capability.c:376 kernel/capability.c:397) ? do_ipt_get_ctl (net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_tables.c:1656) ? bpfilter_send_req (net/bpfilter/bpfilter_kern.c:52) bpfilter nf_getsockopt (net/netfilter/nf_sockopt.c:116) ip_getsockopt (net/ipv4/ip_sockglue.c:1827) __sys_getsockopt (net/socket.c:2327) __x64_sys_getsockopt (net/socket.c:2342 net/socket.c:2339 net/socket.c:2339) do_syscall_64 (arch/x86/entry/common.c:51 arch/x86/entry/common.c:81) entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:121) RIP: 0033:0x7f62844685ee Code: 48 8b 0d 45 28 0f 00 f7 d8 64 89 01 48 83 c8 ff c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 90 f3 0f 1e fa 49 89 ca b8 37 00 00 00 0f 05 <48> 3d 00 f0 ff ff 77 0a c3 66 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 48 8b 15 09 RSP: 002b:00007ffd1f83d638 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000037 RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007ffd1f83d680 RCX: 00007f62844685ee RDX: 0000000000000040 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: 0000000000000004 RBP: 0000000000000004 R08: 00007ffd1f83d670 R09: 0000558798ffa2a0 R10: 00007ffd1f83d680 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 00007ffd1f83e3b2 R13: 00007f6284 ---truncated---

Patch / fix

fixed in 1 distros 4 links 5

Linux Linux 5.15.165, 6.1.104, 6.6.45, 6.10.4, 6.11

debian ubuntu suse azure linux

linux Debian 12 6.1.106-1
linux Debian 14, Debian 13 6.10.4-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2024-42270

linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-125.135
linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-50.51
linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1072.78
linux-aws Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1020.22
linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1071.79
linux-gcp Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1019.21
linux-gke Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1069.75
linux-gke Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1015.19

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2024-42270

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

kernel-rt Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-10.1
kernel-source-rt Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-10.1
kernel-livepatch-MICRO-6-0-RT_Update_2 Linux Micro 6.0 1-1.1
kernel-source Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-19.1
kernel-default Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-19.1
kernel-kvmsmall Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-19.1
kernel-default-base Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-17.1.1.51
kernel-livepatch-MICRO-6-0_Update_2 Linux Micro 6.0 1-1.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2025:20047-1 SUSE-SU-2025:20044-1 SUSE-SU-2024:3383-1 SUSE-SU-2024:3195-1 SUSE-SU-2024:3194-1

kernel Azure Linux 3.0 6.6.47.1-1
kernel CBL-Mariner 2.0 5.15.167.1-1

azure linux advisories AZL-47814 AZL-47850

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2024-42270 updated 2026-11-05 cvss 5.5

kernel: netfilter: iptables: Fix null-ptr-deref in iptable_nat_table_init().

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more
affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more
not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation: none
Automatable: no
Technical impact: partial
Assessed: 2 y ago (2024-09-10)

Exploit prediction

0.23% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 13% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
NVD	3.1	5.5	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

Linux Linux

Classification

Weakness

CWE-476 NULL Pointer Dereference

Technology feeds

Linux kernel rss critical rss

References

Sources

CVE List CVE-2024-42270
NVD CVE-2024-42270

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

Summary