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CVE-2026-72208
ntfs: add bounds check before accessing EA entries
Published 2026-08-15 (2 months ago) by the Linux kernel CNA. Subsystem fs/ntfs. Debian urgency: unimportant.
What to do, per Debian release
Debian's own status for CVE-2026-72208 in every release this site tracks, and what each one means in practice. Every status below is the one the Debian Security Team publishes for this CVE. source
| Release | Status | Version | What this means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 12bookworm | not affected | 6.1.190-1 | Nothing to do. bookworm never shipped the vulnerable code. |
| Debian 13trixie | not affected | 6.12.113-1 | Nothing to do. trixie never shipped the vulnerable code. |
| Debian 14forky | fixed | 7.1.5-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 7.1.5-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
| Debian unstablesid | fixed | 7.1.5-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 7.1.5-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
The vulnerability
What the bug is
in ntfs_ea_lookup and ntfs_listxattr, this verifies that there is enough space in the EA entry before accessing the next_entry_offset field of the EA entry.
Where it lives
The fix touches these files. If the subsystem is one you do not use, the practical exposure is lower, though the package is still the vulnerable one.
fs/ntfs/ea.c
- What this is
- NTFS FILESYSTEMMAINTAINERS section matched on fs/ntfs/ · linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org · Maintained
- Kernel module
- ntfs
Check it on the machine
grep -w CONFIG_NTFS_FS /boot/config-$(uname -r)Reads the booted kernel's own configuration, on the machine and nowhere else. =y is built in, =m is a module, and an is not set line means the code is not there.
lsmod | grep -w ntfsPrints a line if that module is loaded right now, and nothing if it is not. One that is not loaded can still be loaded later by anything that needs it.
Show whether Debian builds this, per release
Debian builds this as a loadable module. Every release with an answer below compiles it as a module on every flavour, so whether the code is in the running kernel depends on whether that module is loaded. The build rule could not be established for 2 releases, so nothing is claimed about those.
- bookworm, trixie?
- forky, sidm
- ?
- not established - no Makefile entry for the affected file
- m
- a loadable module on every flavour - check lsmod, can be blacklisted
Where a release above reads "not established", no build rule for the affected file was found in that release's kernel tree. That is a gap in this lookup, not a finding that the code is absent.
- Build switch
- CONFIG_NTFS_FS
From the configuration Debian publishes for every kernel flavour it builds. It covers only the architectures Debian ships a linux-config package for, and nothing about a kernel you built yourself. Debian's own status above stays authoritative about the source package.MAINTAINERS kbuild Makefiles Debian linux-config packages
Signals
- Published
- 2026-08-15 (2 months ago)source
- CVSS
- 9.8 critical
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:Hsource recompute it - Attack vector
- network (AV:N)source
- EPSS
- 0.55%, higher than 45.0% of all CVEssource
- CISA KEV
- not listedthe KEV catalogue
- Debian urgency
- unimportantsource
- Subsystem
- fs/ntfs
Upstream fixes
The versions the CNA records as introducing and fixing this, and the commit for each. source
| Introduced | Fixed in | Commit |
|---|---|---|
| 7.1 | 7.1.5 | d9d9925de1d8 |
| 7.1 | 7.2 | 937282f7d15b |
Why the CNA scored it this way
Quoted from the kernel CNA's own scoring file, word for word. A highlighted metric carries the most severe value CVSS v3.1 defines for it, which is what pushes the score up. source
- AV:NAttack vector, network
- NTFS registers NFS export ops and is commonly served via nfsd/ksmbd; remote SMB/NFS OPEN, GETXATTR, or LISTXATTRS on an exported NTFS volume reaches ntfs_ea_lookup/ntfs_listxattr on the server without local login.
- AC:LAttack complexity, low
- Triggering is deterministic once a crafted $EA/$EA_INFORMATION chain is on disk; the attacker controls next_entry_offset values to land with fewer than sizeof(struct ea_attr) bytes left, forcing the out-of-bounds read every time.
- PR:NPrivileges required, none
- Exploitation needs only permission to access files on an exported NTFS share (e.g., guest/anonymous SMB or world-readable NFS); no root, CAP_SYS_ADMIN, or init-namespace privileges are required on the server to hit the parser.
- UI:NUser interaction, none
- After the NTFS volume is mounted server-side, a remote client can trigger parsing automatically via normal file open or xattr RPCs; no additional victim interaction is needed per attack.
- S:UScope, unchanged
- Impact is confined to kernel memory and privileges on the host parsing the NTFS image; it does not cross a VM, container, or IOMMU security boundary by itself.
- C:HConfidentiality impact, high
- The bug reads struct ea_attr fields past the bounded EA query length before validation, causing an out-of-bounds kernel heap read that can disclose adjacent slab memory and feed attacker-influenced values into further EA parsing.
- I:HIntegrity impact, high
- Malformed next_entry_offset chaining drives additional unchecked memcmp/memcpy over attacker-chosen offsets inside the EA buffer, providing standard kernel heap grooming primitives that can be developed into arbitrary memory corruption and code execution.
- A:HAvailability impact, high
- Reading EA headers beyond the allocated or mapped buffer can provoke a kernel oops or panic; even failed exploitation still corrupts kernel parsing state and can crash the affected host on repeated access.