CVE-2021-47546

ipv6: fix memory leak in fib6_rule_suppress

Published May 24, 2024 CVSS 3.1 · 5.5 Medium EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ipv6: fix memory leak in fib6_rule_suppress

The kernel leaks memory when a `fib` rule is present in IPv6 nftables
firewall rules and a suppress_prefix rule is present in the IPv6 routing
rules (used by certain tools such as wg-quick). In such scenarios, every
incoming packet will leak an allocation in `ip6_dst_cache` slab cache.

After some hours of `bpftrace`-ing and source code reading, I tracked
down the issue to ca7a03c41753 ("ipv6: do not free rt if
FIB_LOOKUP_NOREF is set on suppress rule").

The problem with that change is that the generic `args->flags` always have
`FIB_LOOKUP_NOREF` set[1][2] but the IPv6-specific flag
`RT6_LOOKUP_F_DST_NOREF` might not be, leading to `fib6_rule_suppress` not
decreasing the refcount when needed.

How to reproduce:
- Add the following nftables rule to a prerouting chain:
meta nfproto ipv6 fib saddr . mark . iif oif missing drop
This can be done with:
sudo nft create table inet test
sudo nft create chain inet test test_chain '{ type filter hook prerouting priority filter + 10; policy accept; }'
sudo nft add rule inet test test_chain meta nfproto ipv6 fib saddr . mark . iif oif missing drop
- Run:
sudo ip -6 rule add table main suppress_prefixlength 0
- Watch `sudo slabtop -o | grep ip6_dst_cache` to see memory usage increase
with every incoming ipv6 packet.

This patch exposes the protocol-specific flags to the protocol
specific `suppress` function, and check the protocol-specific `flags`
argument for RT6_LOOKUP_F_DST_NOREF instead of the generic
FIB_LOOKUP_NOREF when decreasing the refcount, like this.

[1]: https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/ca7a03c4175366a92cee0ccc4fec0038c3266e26/net/ipv6/fib6_rules.c#L71
[2]: https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/ca7a03c4175366a92cee0ccc4fec0038c3266e26/net/ipv6/fib6_rules.c#L99

Analysis

No analysis available yet

Remediation

No remediation available yet

Tracking

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Advisories

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History
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Weaknesses
  • CWE-401

    Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
Linux
Published
Updated
May 23, 2026, 3:20 PM
Reserved
May 24, 2024, 3:02 PM
Status
Modified
Published
May 24, 2024, 3:15 PM
Modified
Jun 17, 2026, 4:17 AM
Severity
Low
Public date
May 24, 2024, 12:00 AM