CyberRota Analysis
AI-GeneratedThe vulnerability affects the Linux kernel's traffic control (TC) subsystem, specifically in the handling of action chains where a race condition can lead to a NULL pointer dereference. This flaw allows for potential denial-of-service attacks due to the kernel crashing when a concurrent modification occurs during action execution. System administrators and developers managing Linux-based systems should prioritize this issue to ensure stability and prevent service disruptions.
Original NVD Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/sched: act_api: fix TOCTOU NULL deref on a->goto_chain tcf_action_exec() handles TC_ACT_GOTO_CHAIN by first checking rcu_access_pointer(a->goto_chain) and then calling tcf_action_goto_chain_exec(), which does a second, independent rcu_dereference_bh(a->goto_chain) read and immediately dereferences chain->filter_chain. A concurrent tcf_action_set_ctrlact() (e.g. the gact replace path) can clear a->goto_chain between the two reads, so the second read returns NULL and tcf_action_goto_chain_exec() dereferences NULL. Fix the race by doing a single rcu_dereference_bh() read of a->goto_chain in tcf_action_exec(), checking it once for NULL, and passing the resulting chain pointer into tcf_action_goto_chain_exec(). This turns the split check/use into a single check/use on one value.