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Linux Kernel CVE-2026-72196

| EUVDEUVD-2026-58954 HIGH
2026-08-15 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 GHSA-7v7p-59m6-6h9x
8.4
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
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Severity by source

Vendor (416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67) PRIMARY
8.4 HIGH
AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
vuln.today AI
7.8 HIGH

Mounting a crafted NTFS3 volume requires at least low privilege on systems without user namespaces enabled; PR:L is more defensible than the provided PR:N for non-default hardened configurations.

3.1 AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
4.0 AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
SUSE
6.1 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H
Red Hat
5.5 MEDIUM
qualitative

Primary rating from Vendor (416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67).

CVSS VectorVendor: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

5
Analysis Generated
Aug 17, 2026 - 07:33 vuln.today
CVSS changed
Aug 17, 2026 - 06:22 NVD
8.4 (HIGH)
Patch available
Aug 15, 2026 - 07:20 EUVD
CVE Published
Aug 15, 2026 - 06:21 cve.org
HIGH 8.4
CVE Published
Aug 15, 2026 - 06:21 cve.org
UNKNOWN (no severity yet)

DescriptionCVE.org

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

fs/ntfs3: bound copy_lcns dp->page_lcns[] index in analysis pass

In log_replay()'s analysis pass, after find_dp() returns a valid DIR_PAGE_ENTRY for the (target_attr, target_vcn) tuple, the copy_lcns block walks lrh->lcns_follow further entries:

t16 = le16_to_cpu(lrh->lcns_follow); for (i = 0; i < t16; i++) { size_t j = (size_t)(le64_to_cpu(lrh->target_vcn) - le64_to_cpu(dp->vcn)); dp->page_lcns[j + i] = lrh->page_lcns[i]; }

find_dp() only validates that target_vcn falls within [dp->vcn, dp->vcn + dp->lcns_follow), i.e., that the FIRST cluster is covered. The walk through the further entries is not bounded against dp->lcns_follow. For a malformed LRH where target_vcn = dp->vcn + dp->lcns_follow - 1 and lrh->lcns_follow > 1, the i > 0 writes overflow the dp's allocated page_lcns[] array.

Add the missing j + lrh->lcns_follow <= dp->lcns_follow guard.

Reproduced under UML+KASAN on mainline 8d90b09e6741 as a slab-out-of-bounds write of size 8 from log_replay+0x68d4 on the mount path.

This is distinct from Pavitra Jha's 2026-05-02 patch ("fs/ntfs3: validate lcns_follow in log_replay conversion", <20260502154252.164586-1-jhapavitra98@gmail.com>) which addresses the separate version-0 dirty-page-table conversion path's memmove(&dp->vcn, ...) call. The two fixes are complementary; both should land.

[almaz.alexandrovich@paragon-software.com: clang-formatted the changes, fixed conflicts]

AnalysisAI

Slab-out-of-bounds write in the Linux kernel's NTFS3 filesystem driver (fs/ntfs3) is triggered during the log_replay() analysis pass when mounting a malformed NTFS3 volume. The copy_lcns loop lacks bounds enforcement against dp->lcns_follow, so a crafted LRH entry with target_vcn set to dp->vcn + dp->lcns_follow - 1 and lcns_follow greater than 1 overflows the heap-allocated page_lcns[] array, corrupting kernel memory. Confirmed by KASAN on mainline kernel 8d90b09e6741 with a slab-out-of-bounds write of size 8 at log_replay+0x68d4; no public exploit exists and EPSS stands at 0.21%, though the CVSS score of 8.4 reflects the full confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact of kernel heap corruption.

Technical ContextAI

The NTFS3 driver (fs/ntfs3), merged into the Linux mainline at 5.15, implements native read-write support for the NTFS filesystem format used by Windows. During mount, the driver's log_replay() function processes the NTFS $LogFile journal to replay uncommitted transactions. In the analysis pass, find_dp() locates a DIR_PAGE_ENTRY (dp) for a given (target_attr, target_vcn) tuple, verifying only that the first cluster (target_vcn) falls within the dp's range [dp->vcn, dp->vcn + dp->lcns_follow). The subsequent copy_lcns loop iterates lrh->lcns_follow further entries using index j + i into dp->page_lcns[], but never validates that j + lrh->lcns_follow <= dp->lcns_follow. A malformed LRH with target_vcn = dp->vcn + dp->lcns_follow - 1 and lcns_follow greater than 1 causes the i > 0 iterations to write 8-byte LCN values beyond the allocated slab boundary - a classic heap out-of-bounds write (tagged Buffer Overflow). The root cause is a missing bounds guard that the fix adds as a single conditional. This issue is distinct from and complementary to Pavitra Jha's 2026-05-02 patch addressing a separate memmove overflow in the dirty-page-table conversion path within the same function.

RemediationAI

The primary fix is to upgrade to a patched stable kernel release: 6.1.178, 6.6.145, 6.12.97, 6.18.40, 7.1.5, or 7.2-rc1 or later. Patch commits are published to the kernel stable trees; the 7.2-rc1 fix is at https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/49c86dae0c0ccb8d98ddcdc46987259389c816dd, with analogous commits for each supported branch. Critically, the complementary patch by Pavitra Jha (2026-05-02) addressing the separate memmove overflow in log_replay()'s dirty-page-table conversion path must also be present - verify both fixes are included before declaring full remediation. For systems that cannot immediately patch, the most effective compensating control is to prevent the NTFS3 module from loading: 'echo install ntfs3 /bin/false >> /etc/modprobe.d/disable-ntfs3.conf && rmmod ntfs3' - this blocks all NTFS3 mounts but will break workflows that rely on reading Windows-formatted removable media. A less disruptive alternative is to disable unprivileged user namespaces via 'sysctl kernel.unprivileged_userns_clone=0' (on supported distributions such as Ubuntu), which prevents unprivileged users from triggering mounts while preserving administrative mounting capability. Configuring udev rules to block automounting of NTFS3-typed partitions reduces exposure from removable media without fully disabling the module.

Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Moderate
Product Status
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 16.0 Not-Affected

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CVE-2026-72196 vulnerability details – vuln.today

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