VulnerabilityPublished 15 Aug 2026Updated 21 Oct 2026

CVE-2026-72198: Linux kernel · ntfs: reject non-resident records for resident-only attributes

Affects Linux kernelSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.8 High · fixed in b54c9beb90e570bae17a9c18442aeeaf17165ccb : patch Linux kernel soon.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 13:47 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.8High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 6% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in b54c9beb90e570bae17a9c18442aeeaf17165ccb, 6626fb859f4c4772f2f59751d23937716e03f98f, 097cdfd0a55df5af82c9753833f39a8bfadbcfcb +1

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide basic user capabilities that could normally affect only settings and files owned by a user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges may have the ability to cause an impact only to non-sensitive resources.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 15 Aug 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade Linux kernel to b54c9beb90e570bae17a9c18442aeeaf17165ccb, 6626fb859f4c4772f2f59751d23937716e03f98f, 097cdfd0a55df5af82c9753833f39a8bfadbcfcb or 7ffa8f3d30236e0ab897c30bdb01224ff1fe1c89.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
LinuxLinux	Affected ≥ 1e9ea7e04472d4e5e12e58c881eaacfb3e49b669, < b54c9beb90e570bae17a9c18442aeeaf17165ccb	Fixed in b54c9beb90e570bae17a9c18442aeeaf17165ccb
LinuxLinux	Affected ≥ 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2, < 6626fb859f4c4772f2f59751d23937716e03f98f	Fixed in 6626fb859f4c4772f2f59751d23937716e03f98f
LinuxLinux	Affected ≥ 1e9ea7e04472d4e5e12e58c881eaacfb3e49b669, < 097cdfd0a55df5af82c9753833f39a8bfadbcfcb	Fixed in 097cdfd0a55df5af82c9753833f39a8bfadbcfcb
LinuxLinux	Affected ≥ 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2, < 7ffa8f3d30236e0ab897c30bdb01224ff1fe1c89	Fixed in 7ffa8f3d30236e0ab897c30bdb01224ff1fe1c89
LinuxLinux	Affected =2.6.12 =7.1	Fixed in–

Description

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.

References

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