CVE-2026-80674
CriticalCVSS 9.8Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk5th percentile - higher than 5% of all known CVEs
Summary
A vulnerability was found in the Linux kernel's NTFS filesystem. Attribute lists for base inodes were not properly validated when resident, allowing out-of-bounds reads of the buffer. A validation function was added to check each entry's header and length before use.
Risk Assessment
The risk includes potential out-of-bounds memory reads by a local attacker with access to a crafted NTFS filesystem, which could lead to information disclosure or system crash.
Recommendation
It is recommended to immediately update the Linux kernel to a version containing the fix (commit resolving this issue). Also avoid mounting untrusted NTFS volumes until the update is applied.
Original NVD description (English source)
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ntfs: validate resident attribute lists and harden the validator A base inode's $ATTRIBUTE_LIST is sanity-checked by load_attribute_list() only on the non-resident path; ntfs_read_locked_inode() copies a *resident* attribute list into ni->attr_list with a plain memcpy() and no validation at all. Every subsequent walk of ni->attr_list -- ntfs_external_attr_find(), ntfs_inode_attach_all_extents() and ntfs_attrlist_need() -- then trusts the entries are well-formed and reads attr_list_entry fixed-header fields (lowest_vcn at offset 8, mft_reference at offset 16, and the name) with bounds that assume validation already happened. A crafted resident attribute list therefore reaches those walks unvalidated and can drive out-of-bounds reads of the attribute-list buffer. load_attribute_list() itself reads ale->name_offset (offset 7), ale->mft_reference (offset 16) and the name length under only an "al < al_start + size" bound, so its own validation loop can over-read the fixed header of a truncated trailing entry by a few bytes. Factor the per-entry validation into ntfs_attr_list_entry_is_valid(), which requires each entry's fixed header (offsetof(struct attr_list_entry, name)) to be in range before any field is dereferenced, that ale->length is a multiple of 8 covering the fixed header plus the name, and that the entry is in use and carries a live MFT reference. ntfs_attr_list_is_valid() walks the buffer with it and checks the entries tile it exactly. Use the list validator in load_attribute_list() (replacing the open-coded loop, closing its own over-read) and on the resident path in ntfs_read_locked_inode() (which previously skipped validation entirely); patches 2/3 reuse the per-entry helper at the other two attribute-list walks.