The vulnerability in the Linux kernel's NTFS driver involves a memory leak in the function ntfs_non_resident_attr_insert_range(). Specifically, hole_rl is allocated before mapping the entire runlist, but if ntfs_attr_map_whole_runlist() fails, the error path returns without freeing hole_rl, leaking memory of sizeof(*hole_rl) * 2 bytes. The patch corrects this by freeing hole_rl before returning on that error path, aligning with other error handling in the function.

The impact is limited to a memory leak of a small amount of memory (sizeof(*hole_rl) * 2 bytes) when a specific error condition occurs in the NTFS driver. There is no indication of code execution, privilege escalation, or data corruption. No known exploits are reported in the wild.

A fix has been applied to the Linux kernel to free the leaked memory in the error path. Users should update to the fixed kernel version once available. Patch status is not explicitly confirmed in the provided data; check the vendor advisory or Linux kernel release notes for the official fix and update guidance.