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CVE-2026-23231

Use After Free: Is CVE-2026-23231 real, exploitable, or a false positive? Here's the community verdict.

signals

public sources

Exploited in wild
Not listed
CISA KEV
Public exploit
Exploit-DB
Metasploit/EDB/PoC
Base severity
7.8 High
CVSS
Exploitation prob.
0.8%
FIRST EPSS
Weakness
CWE-416 · Use After Free
CWE

High CVSS base score, but low real-world exploitation probability (EPSS). Likely less urgent than the score implies.

public exploits

links to sources — we don’t host code

A working exploit is publicly available from a maintained source. Treat this as higher urgency and verify your exposure.

baseline read

auto · not a community verdict

Real, but low real-world risk

A genuine vulnerability on paper, but EPSS shows little real-world exploitation — the base score may overstate urgency. This is not the same as a false positive.

Based on CVSS · FIRST EPSS

Confirm or dispute →
Affected:Linux

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfilter: nf_tables: fix use-after-free in nf_tables_addchain() nf_tables_addchain() publishes the chain to table->chains via list_add_tail_rcu() (in nft_chain_add()) before registering hooks. If nf_tables_register_hook() then fails, the error path calls nft_chain_del() (list_del_rcu()) followed by nf_tables_chain_destroy() with no RCU grace period in between. This creates two use-after-free conditions: 1) Control-plane: nf_tables_dump_chains() traverses table->chains under rcu_read_lock(). A concurrent dump can still be walking the chain when the error path frees it. 2) Packet path: for NFPROTO_INET, nf_register_net_hook() briefly installs the IPv4 hook before IPv6 registration fails. Packets entering nft_do_chain() via the transient IPv4 hook can still be dereferencing chain->blob_gen_X when the error path frees the chain. Add synchronize_rcu() between nft_chain_del() and the chain destroy so that all RCU readers -- both dump threads and in-flight packet evaluation -- have finished before the chain is freed.

Published

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In your experience, is this finding real and exploitable?

awaiting field verdicts
Real, but not a risk here
Not a real issue

Curated baseline: TruePositive's read from public sources is Real & exploitable — a starting point, not a community verdict.

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Field notes & remediation

Verdicts are the quick signal. Notes are the evidence and fixes behind them.

  • 0
    Field note · TruePositive EditorialCurated

    A working public exploit is published for this, so the barrier to attack is low. It needs local access, so it reads more as a privilege-escalation or post-access risk than a remote one. Patch this on priority and confirm the fix holds.

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Same weakness: CWE-416 · Use After Free.