Bug 2507261 (CVE-2026-64431)

Summary: CVE-2026-64431 kernel: ntfs: avoid calling post_write_mst_fixup() for invalid index_block
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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Doc Text:
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's NTFS file system driver. A remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability by providing a specially crafted NTFS image, leading to out-of-bounds memory access. This memory corruption can cause the system to crash, resulting in a denial of service.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-07-25 10:13:22 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ntfs: avoid calling post_write_mst_fixup() for invalid index_block

ntfs_icx_ib_sync_write() calls post_write_mst_fixup() when ntfs_ib_write()
returns an error, intending to restore the buffer after a failed write.

However, ntfs_ib_write() returns an error immediately if
pre_write_mst_fixup() validation fails. The caller,
ntfs_icx_ib_sync_write(), interprets any error as a write failure
requiring rollback. It does not differentiate between I/O errors and
validation failures, and calls post_write_mst_fixup() anyway.

Since post_write_mst_fixup() assumes that the index_block contents is
correct, it doesn't perform the boundary checks, which results in
out-of-bounds memory access.

An attacker can craft a malicious NTFS image with:
  - large index_block.usa_ofs offset, pointing outside the ntfs_record
  - index_block.usa_count = 0, causing integer underflow
  - or index_block.usa_count larger than actual number of sectors in the
    ntfs_record, causing out-of-bounds access

KASAN reports describing the memory corruption:
  ==================================================================
  BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in post_write_mst_fixup+0x19c/0x1d0
  Read of size 2 at addr ffff8881586c9018 by task p/9428
  Call Trace:
   <TASK>
   dump_stack_lvl+0x100/0x190
   print_report+0x139/0x4ad
   ? post_write_mst_fixup+0x19c/0x1d0
   ? __virt_addr_valid+0x262/0x500
   ? post_write_mst_fixup+0x19c/0x1d0
   kasan_report+0xe4/0x1d0
   ? post_write_mst_fixup+0x19c/0x1d0
   post_write_mst_fixup+0x19c/0x1d0
   ntfs_icx_ib_sync_write+0x179/0x220
   ntfs_inode_sync_filename+0x83d/0x1080
   __ntfs_write_inode+0x1049/0x1480
   ntfs_file_fsync+0x131/0x9b0
  ==================================================================
  BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in post_write_mst_fixup+0x1aa/0x1d0
  Write of size 2 at addr ffff8881586c91fe by task p/9428
  Call Trace:
   <TASK>
   dump_stack_lvl+0x100/0x190
   print_report+0x139/0x4ad
   ? post_write_mst_fixup+0x1aa/0x1d0
   ? __virt_addr_valid+0x262/0x500
   ? post_write_mst_fixup+0x1aa/0x1d0
   kasan_report+0xe4/0x1d0
   ? post_write_mst_fixup+0x1aa/0x1d0
   post_write_mst_fixup+0x1aa/0x1d0
   ntfs_icx_ib_sync_write+0x179/0x220
   ntfs_inode_sync_filename+0x83d/0x1080
   __ntfs_write_inode+0x1049/0x1480
   ntfs_file_fsync+0x131/0x9b0
  ==================================================================

Let's move the post_write_mst_fixup() call to ntfs_ib_write().
The ntfs_ib_write() function calls pre_write_mst_fixup() at the beginning.
If the index_block contents is invalid, pre_write_mst_fixup() fails and
ntfs_ib_write() returns early without calling post_write_mst_fixup() on
bad index_block.