In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfilter: nf_nat_sip: reload possible stale data pointer quoting s…
CVE-2026-72251 · published 15 Aug 2026
How serious is it
- Severity: critical, CVSS score 9.8 out of 10.
- No exploit prediction (EPSS) score yet.
- Not on the CISA list of exploited vulnerabilities.
- No public exploit in Exploit-DB.
Is your app affected by CVE-2026-72251?
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Who is affected
- Linux Linux: 3.9
How to check
- Find out whether you run the affected product and which version, then compare it with the versions above.
How to fix
Copies a prompt for Claude Code, Cursor or Codex that asks it to check whether you run this product.
- Apply the vendor's update or mitigation from the references below. If there is none yet, limit exposure of the affected service until there is.
- If a vulnerable version was live, check your logs and rotate the secrets that server could read.
The advisory
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
netfilter: nf_nat_sip: reload possible stale data pointer
quoting sashiko:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[..] noticed a potential memory bug and header corruption involving the
SIP NAT helper.
In net/netfilter/nf_nat_sip.c:nf_nat_sip():
if (skb_ensure_writable(skb, skb->len)) {
nf_ct_helper_log(skb, ct, "cannot mangle packet");
return NF_DROP;
}
uh = (void *)skb->data + protoff;
uh->dest = ct_sip_info->forced_dport;
if (!nf_nat_mangle_udp_packet(skb, ct, ctinfo, protoff,
0, 0, NULL, 0)) {
If a cloned or fragmented SKB is reallocated by skb_ensure_writable(), the
old data buffer is freed. However, nf_nat_sip() fails to update *dptr to
point to the new buffer.
It also appears to use nf_nat_mangle_udp_packet() on what could be a TCP
packet, which would overwrite the sequence number with a checksum update.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
nf_conntrack_sip linerizes skbs, hence no fragmented skb can be seen.
But clones are possible, so rebuild dptr.
Disable nf_nat_mangle_udp_packet() branch for TCP streams.
It doesn't look like this can ever happen, else we should have received
bug reports about this, so just check the conntrack is UDP and drop
otherwise.
The calling conntrack_sip set ->forced_dport for SIP_HDR_VIA_UDP messages,
so I don't think this is ever expected to be true for a TCP stream.
Check your whole app
Dependencies are only half of it. Free and read-only: before you push, run npx shippable-dev scan localhost:3000 in your project folder, no account needed. For your live app, you prove it's yours with a one-line tag first.
References
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/0e76e3e886cc9ee027337d5ad39cb96f57b7bdc7
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/2bcf2c5052fb5e73e255140ab43f056aef409c27
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/57e4e29644ec054d7021d296407e7ddd844afea2
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/77e43bcb7ec177e293a5c3f1b91a2c5aebfb6c68
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/bded21a4bf9bf86a79148be735723a97ca9a7532
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/dc11f26685aa850f237226f0f463647aea58ab7c
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/e38143c9b477f2968024c47c647dd4456a40aff1
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/eae9c6ccb5af69c713a65f8ae219f5c1aa32cd17
Merged from NVD. Last updated 23 Oct 2026. All vulnerabilities · RSS · JSON