Linux Kernel up to 7.1.4 ntfs ntfs_external_attr_find out-of-bounds

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 7.1.4. It has been declared as critical. Affected is the function ntfs_external_attr_find of the component ntfs. Such manipulation leads to out-of-bounds. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2026-80673. The attack can be executed remotely. There is not any exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 7.1.4 and classified as critical. Affected by this issue is the function ntfs_external_attr_find of the component ntfs. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a out-of-bounds vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-125. The product reads data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ntfs: bound the look-ahead attribute-list entry in ntfs_external_attr_find() When resolving an attribute lookup with a non-zero @lowest_vcn, ntfs_external_attr_find() peeks at the next $ATTRIBUTE_LIST entry to decide whether to keep searching, but bounds that not-yet-validated entry only with "(u8 *)next_al_entry + 6 < al_end" (which proves just bytes 0..6 are in range) and "(u8 *)next_al_entry + length <= al_end" with an attacker-controlled, non-8-aligned length. It then reads next_al_entry->lowest_vcn (an __le64 at offset 8) and the name at next_al_entry->name_offset, both of which can lie past al_end -- the exact end of the kvmalloc'd attribute-list buffer (allocated at the on-disk attr_list_size, no rounding). A crafted on-disk $ATTRIBUTE_LIST whose last entry sits a few bytes before al_end therefore yields a slab out-of-bounds read when the inode is read. Validate the look-ahead entry with ntfs_attr_list_entry_is_valid() (added in patch 1/3) before dereferencing lowest_vcn and the name, so the same fixed-header, length and name bounds the main attribute-list walk uses now guard this read too.

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-80673 since 08/26/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be launched remotely. Technical details are known, but there is no available exploit. The structure of the vulnerability defines a possible price range of USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 08/28/2026).

Upgrading to version 7.1.5 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 44885c9b45eb4082fb7f558590d84bb254a08e94/344b18f389f9934d59c7b0cf3d20541ea2e0da58 is able to eliminate this problem.

If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 7.1.0
• 7.1.1
• 7.1.2
• 7.1.3
• 7.1.4

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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Entryinfo

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