[PATCH net v2] netlink: fix out-of-bounds bitmap access clearing stale mc groups
From: Henry Martin
Date: Mon Oct 12 2026 - 22:46:50 EST
netlink_realloc_groups() sizes nlk->groups to the number of groups
that exist at bind/ADD_MEMBERSHIP time. When more multicast groups
are registered later (e.g. a new genl family), existing sockets keep
their smaller bitmap.
When clearing a multicast group of a departing family,
__netlink_clear_multicast_users() runs netlink_update_socket_mc() on
each socket on mc_list, which does test_bit()/__assign_bit() on
group - 1 with no regard to nlk->ngroups. Skip groups that lie
beyond the socket's bitmap: such a socket could never have joined
them. This is the same guard do_one_broadcast() already applies.
With in-tree families the overflow is only reachable on 32-bit
kernels: the ~54 dynamically allocated genl groups fit the initial
64-bit bitmap on 64-bit kernels but exceed the 32-bit one, so the
table can grow there, and a later module unload then touches bits
past the bitmap of stale sockets.
This issue was discovered by Tencent CodeBuddy Security.
Fixes: 84659eb529b3 ("[NETLIKN]: Allow removing multicast groups.")
Signed-off-by: Henry Martin <bsdhenrymartin@xxxxxxxxx>
---
v2: Correct the Fixes tag (the clear path was added by 84659eb529b3,
not by the dynamic bitmap commit), drop Cc: stable and describe
the actual reachability (32-bit kernels with in-tree families)
instead of implying generic heap corruption.
net/netlink/af_netlink.c | 6 ++++++
1 file changed, 6 insertions(+)
diff --git a/net/netlink/af_netlink.c b/net/netlink/af_netlink.c
index 9fdf964224ab4..8cc655aa927f1 100644
--- a/net/netlink/af_netlink.c
+++ b/net/netlink/af_netlink.c
@@ -1657,6 +1657,12 @@ static void netlink_update_socket_mc(struct netlink_sock *nlk,
{
int old, new = !!is_new, subscriptions;
+ /* A socket whose bitmap predates this group can never be a member;
+ * don't touch bits beyond its allocation.
+ */
+ if (group - 1 >= nlk->ngroups)
+ return;
+
old = test_bit(group - 1, nlk->groups);
subscriptions = nlk->subscriptions - old + new;
__assign_bit(group - 1, nlk->groups, new);
--
2.43.7