VulnerabilityPublished 25 Sep 2026Updated 19 Oct 2026

CVE-2026-98141: Linux kernel · ntfs: propagate reparse index insertion failure

Affects Linux kernelSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited : upgrade to c62f446c63398dc7151f413069bf617032cf7a71 or 9692b1b4fc00cf89628bc43f71729ab21f14f8d3 when convenient.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 13:47 UTC

Severity

Low

Rated Low by Threat Radar's AI analysis · CVSS not yet scored by NVD

EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 3% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in c62f446c63398dc7151f413069bf617032cf7a71, 9692b1b4fc00cf89628bc43f71729ab21f14f8d3

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 25 Sep 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 c62f446c63398dc7151f413069bf617032cf7a71 or 9692b1b4fc00cf89628bc43f71729ab21f14f8d3.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
LinuxLinux	Affected ≥ fc053f05ca282a5e760b41f6560ac835c4e28037, < c62f446c63398dc7151f413069bf617032cf7a71	Fixed in c62f446c63398dc7151f413069bf617032cf7a71
LinuxLinux	Affected ≥ fc053f05ca282a5e760b41f6560ac835c4e28037, < 9692b1b4fc00cf89628bc43f71729ab21f14f8d3	Fixed in 9692b1b4fc00cf89628bc43f71729ab21f14f8d3
LinuxLinux	Affected =7.1	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

The issue has been fixed in the Linux kernel with commits c62f446c63398dc7151f413069bf617032cf7a71 and 9692b1b4fc00cf89628bc43f71729ab21f14f8d3. Users should update to a kernel version including these fixes. No additional mitigation is required beyond applying the official patch.

Description

A vulnerability in the Linux kernel's NTFS implementation caused the update_reparse_data() function to ignore failures from set_reparse_index(). This led to situations where symlink creation and WSL special file creation could report success even though the reparse data was not actually written to disk. The issue was fixed by propagating the error to the caller to ensure failure is correctly reported.

Impact

The vulnerability causes the system to incorrectly report success when creating symbolic links or WSL special files on NTFS, even though the reparse data was not actually written to disk. This could lead to inconsistencies or unexpected behavior in file system operations relying on reparse data. There is no indication of code execution or privilege escalation. No known exploits in the wild have been reported.

Summary

The Linux kernel NTFS driver had a flaw where update_reparse_data() ignored the return value of set_reparse_index(), which inserts reparse index data. When insertion failed, the code cleaned up by removing the reparse data but still returned success (0), causing symlink(2) and WSL special file creation to falsely report success despite no reparse data being stored. This silent failure also occurred when no previous reparse data existed. The fix propagates the error to the caller to prevent false success reporting.

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 26 Oct 2026, 12:28 UTC

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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