CVE-2026-72194
CriticalCVSS 9.8Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk13th percentile - higher than 13% of all known CVEs
Summary
In the Linux kernel's NTFS3 filesystem, the indx_find_buffer function had no recursion depth limit, potentially leading to kernel stack overflow. The fix adds a depth parameter and a check against the limit.
Risk Assessment
Mounting a malicious NTFS image and deleting a file can trigger unbounded recursion, leading to system crash (kernel panic).
Recommendation
Apply the Linux kernel update containing this fix. Avoid mounting untrusted NTFS images.
Original NVD description (English source)
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fs/ntfs3: add depth limit to indx_find_buffer to prevent stack overflow indx_find_buffer() recursively descends the B+ tree index with no depth limit. A crafted NTFS image with circular index node references causes unbounded recursion, overflowing the kernel stack and panicking the system. This is reachable by mounting a malicious NTFS filesystem (e.g. from a USB drive via desktop automount) and deleting a file whose index entry triggers the rebalancing fallback path in indx_delete_entry(). Add a depth parameter and bail out with -EINVAL when it reaches the fnd->nodes array bound, matching the constraint already enforced by fnd_push() in indx_find(). The related function indx_find() was previously patched for a similar infinite-loop issue (commit 1732053c8a6b), but indx_find_buffer() was missed.