Linux Kernel NTFS ntfs_map_runlist_nolock out-of-bounds

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability labeled as very critical has been found in Linux Kernel. This vulnerability affects the function ntfs_map_runlist_nolock of the component NTFS. The manipulation results in out-of-bounds. This vulnerability is cataloged as CVE-2026-72185. The attack may be launched remotely. There is no exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel (the affected version unknown). It has been classified as very critical. Affected is the function ntfs_map_runlist_nolock of the component NTFS. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a out-of-bounds vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-125. The product reads data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ntfs: fix WARN_ON for resident attribute in ntfs_map_runlist_nolock() When ntfs_map_runlist_nolock() needs to look up the attribute extent containing a target VCN (ctx_needs_reset == true), it calls ntfs_attr_lookup() and then expects the result to be a non-resident attribute, since only non-resident attributes have a mapping pairs array to decompress. A crafted NTFS image can place a resident attribute where a non-resident one is expected, causing ntfs_attr_lookup() to succeed but return a resident attribute record. Previously this was caught only by a WARN_ON(), which does not stop execution. The code then falls through to read a->data.non_resident.highest_vcn from what is actually a resident attribute, accessing the wrong union member and corrupting the VCN range check. The caller path triggering this warning during mount is: ntfs_map_runlist_nolock ntfs_empty_logfile load_system_files ntfs_fill_super In this path ctx is NULL, so ntfs_map_runlist_nolock() allocates a temporary search context internally and sets ctx_needs_reset = true. The existing resident-attribute guard in the ctx != NULL branch already returns -EIO silently for the same condition; make the ctx_needs_reset path consistent by replacing the WARN_ON() with the same -EIO error return. This causes the crafted image to be rejected with a mount error instead of triggering a kernel warning.

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2026-72185 since 08/09/2026. The exploitability is told to be easy. It is possible to launch the attack remotely. Successful exploitation requires user interaction by the victim. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available. The current price for an exploit might be approx. USD $0-$5k (estimation calculated on 08/15/2026).

Applying the patch b397b1238a217264bb02f963a1a1eadf71906375/b8d6c528e9d57d263fee1a648409f84a68b2561d is able to eliminate this problem.

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Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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