VulnerabilityPublished 17 Aug 2026

CVE-2026-74414: Linux kernel · hfsplus: Remove the duplicate attr inode dirty marking action

Affects Linux kernelSource GCVE Database

Not known to be exploited.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 13:47 UTC

Severity

Medium

Rated by Threat Radar · CVSS not yet scored by NVD

EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 9% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 17 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.

ghsa-ww36-wq8j-p7q8

What to do

AI-suggested

A fix has been implemented in the Linux kernel by removing the duplicate attribute inode dirty marking action. Users should apply the official Linux kernel updates that include this patch.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: hfsplus: Remove the duplicate attr inode dirty marking action Syzbot reported a null-ptr-deref in [1]. If the attributes file is not loaded during system mount, a trigger occurs [1] when setxattr is executed in userspace. Remove the first mark attr inode dirty operation. [1] KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000008-0x000000000000000f] Call Trace: hfsplus_setxattr+0x124/0x340 fs/hfsplus/xattr.c:555 hfsplus_trusted_setxattr+0x40/0x60 fs/hfsplus/xattr_trusted.c:30 __vfs_setxattr+0x43c/0x480 fs/xattr.c:218 __vfs_setxattr_noperm+0x12d/0x660 fs/xattr.c:252 vfs_setxattr+0x163/0x360 fs/xattr.c:339 do_setxattr fs/xattr.c:654 [inline]

Impact

This vulnerability can cause a kernel crash (null pointer dereference) when setxattr is called under certain conditions, potentially leading to denial of service. There is no indication of privilege escalation or arbitrary code execution from the provided data. No known exploits are reported in the wild.

Summary

The vulnerability CVE-2026-74414 in the Linux kernel's HFS+ filesystem arises from a null pointer dereference caused by a duplicate attribute inode dirty marking action. Specifically, if the attributes file is not loaded during system mount, invoking setxattr in userspace triggers a null pointer dereference in the hfsplus_setxattr function. The patch removes the first mark attribute inode dirty operation to prevent this condition. The issue was reported by Syzbot and involves kernel address sanitizer (KASAN) detecting a null pointer dereference in a specific memory range during execution of the setxattr code path in the HFS+ filesystem.

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 15 Aug 2026, 15:56 UTC

Technical details

References

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