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Linux Kernel CVE-2026-72198

| EUVDEUVD-2026-58956 HIGH
2026-08-15 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 GHSA-v45q-rmh4-rr86
7.8
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
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Severity by source

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

Local access with standard user privileges required to mount a crafted NTFS image; scope unchanged as impact is contained to the kernel's vulnerable component with no lateral scope change.

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
MEDIUM
qualitative
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
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

5
Analysis Generated
Aug 17, 2026 - 07:34 vuln.today
CVSS changed
Aug 17, 2026 - 06:22 NVD
7.8 (HIGH)
Patch available
Aug 15, 2026 - 07:20 EUVD
CVE Published
Aug 15, 2026 - 06:21 cve.org
HIGH 7.8
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:

ntfs: reject non-resident records for resident-only attributes

The shared lookup-time attribute validator rejects non-resident $FILE_NAME and $VOLUME_NAME records because their formats require resident values and callers handle returned records as resident attributes. Other resident-only attribute types still pass through the generic non-resident mapping-pairs checks.

That leaves real resident/non-resident union confusion paths. Inode load looks up $STANDARD_INFORMATION and then reads data.resident.value_offset without checking a->non_resident. ntfs_inode_sync_standard_information() does the same when updating the standard information value. ntfs_write_volume_flags() also looks up $VOLUME_INFORMATION and reads data.resident.value_offset directly. $INDEX_ROOT callers in dir.c and index.c depend on the same lookup contract before consuming the resident index root value.

Reject non-resident records for all resident-only attribute types in the shared validator. Keep the existing $FILE_NAME and $VOLUME_NAME behavior, but factor it through a helper and extend it to $STANDARD_INFORMATION, $OBJECT_ID, $VOLUME_INFORMATION, $INDEX_ROOT, and $EA_INFORMATION. For $OBJECT_ID and $EA_INFORMATION this is contract hardening for resident-only formats; this patch only rejects the non-resident form and does not add new resident value validation for those types.

AnalysisAI

The legacy NTFS driver in the Linux kernel fails to reject non-resident attribute records for attribute types contractually required to be resident, creating resident/non-resident union confusion paths in multiple critical code locations. Affected callers - including inode loading ($STANDARD_INFORMATION), volume flag updates ($VOLUME_INFORMATION), and directory traversal ($INDEX_ROOT) - read data.resident.value_offset directly without first verifying the a->non_resident flag, potentially acting on the wrong union member when a crafted or corrupted NTFS image is mounted. A local attacker with standard user privileges can exploit this to trigger kernel memory corruption or information disclosure; no active exploitation is confirmed (EPSS 0.20%, not in CISA KEV), and patches are available in Linux 7.1.5 and 7.2-rc1.

Technical ContextAI

The Linux kernel's legacy NTFS driver (distinct from the newer ntfs3 driver) represents NTFS attributes using a union structure with resident and non-resident members. NTFS attributes may be stored inline in the MFT record (resident) or in external extent clusters accessed via mapping pairs (non-resident). Certain attribute types - $STANDARD_INFORMATION, $OBJECT_ID, $VOLUME_INFORMATION, $INDEX_ROOT, and $EA_INFORMATION - are defined as resident-only by the NTFS specification, meaning the format and caller contracts assume their data is always inline. The shared attribute validator previously rejected non-resident forms only for $FILE_NAME and $VOLUME_NAME, leaving the remaining resident-only types to pass through generic non-resident mapping-pairs checks. Callers such as ntfs_inode_sync_standard_information() and ntfs_write_volume_flags() then read data.resident.value_offset without checking the non_resident flag, constituting a type confusion pattern analogous to CWE-843 (no formal CWE is assigned). CPE data is not provided but the affected component is the in-tree kernel NTFS driver compiled into or loaded as a module on Linux kernels from initial commit 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 through the fix commits.

RemediationAI

The primary fix is upgrading to Linux kernel 7.1.5 on the stable branch or Linux 7.2-rc1 on mainline; the upstream commits at https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/097cdfd0a55df5af82c9753833f39a8bfadbcfcb and https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b54c9beb90e570bae17a9c18442aeeaf17165ccb introduce a shared helper that enforces non-resident rejection for all resident-only attribute types. Distribution maintainers (Red Hat, Debian, Ubuntu, SUSE) should be consulted for backported patches on earlier supported kernel series. For systems that cannot patch immediately, unloading or blacklisting the legacy NTFS kernel module (modprobe -r ntfs; echo 'blacklist ntfs' >> /etc/modprobe.d/ntfs-block.conf) eliminates the attack surface entirely; the trade-off is loss of all legacy NTFS mount capability, though the ntfs3 driver can serve as a functional replacement for legitimate NTFS access. If neither patch nor module removal is feasible, restricting NTFS mount capability to root-only via AppArmor or SELinux policy prevents unprivileged users from triggering the vulnerable code paths, though this does not protect against attack vectors involving automount services or privileged processes that process user-supplied disk images.

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-2026-72198 vulnerability details – vuln.today

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