CVE-2026-31424 — netfilter: x_tables: restrict xt_check_match/xt_check_target extensions for NFPROTO_ARP

Affected: Linux, Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP, Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518F-4 PN/DP MFP, Siemens SIPLUS S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP

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

netfilter: x_tables: restrict xt_check_match/xt_check_target extensions for NFPROTO_ARP

Weiming Shi says:

xt_match and xt_target structs registered with NFPROTO_UNSPEC can be loaded by any protocol family through nft_compat. When such a match/target sets .hooks to restrict which hooks it may run on, the bitmask uses NF_INET_* constants. This is only correct for families whose hook layout matches NF_INET_*: IPv4, IPv6, INET, and bridge all share the same five hooks (PRE_ROUTING ... POST_ROUTING).

ARP only has three hooks (IN=0, OUT=1, FORWARD=2) with different semantics. Because NF_ARP_OUT == 1 == NF_INET_LOCAL_IN, the .hooks validation silently passes for the wrong reasons, allowing matches to run on ARP chains where the hook assumptions (e.g. state->in being set on input hooks) do not hold. This leads to NULL pointer dereferences; xt_devgroup is one concrete example:

Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000044: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN NOPTI KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000220-0x0000000000000227] RIP: 0010:devgroup_mt+0xff/0x350 Call Trace: <TASK> nft_match_eval (net/netfilter/nft_compat.c:407) nft_do_chain (net/netfilter/nf_tables_core.c:285) nft_do_chain_arp (net/netfilter/nft_chain_filter.c:61) nf_hook_slow (net/netfilter/core.c:623) arp_xmit (net/ipv4/arp.c:666) </TASK> Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt

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CVE-2026-31424 — netfilter: x_tables: restrict xt_check_match/xt_check_target extensions for NFPROTO_ARP