Bug 2540497 (CVE-2026-97437)

Summary: CVE-2026-97437 kernel: ntfs3: fix out-of-bounds read in ntfs_dir_emit() and hdr_find_e()
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: akhatavk, aos-team-art-private, asdas, dpaolell, jdelft, jupierce, lgarciaa, mbiarnes, ppalepu, ppostler, prdhamdh, rhel-process-autobot, sghai, sidsharm, suppawar, vlaad, 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 ntfs3 file system driver. Improper bounds checking during directory reading and index lookups can lead to an out-of-bounds memory read. A local attacker could exploit this vulnerability by mounting a specially crafted NTFS image, which could crash the system and cause a Denial of Service (DoS) or potentially disclose sensitive kernel memory.
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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 2026-09-24 17:01:44 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ntfs3: fix out-of-bounds read in ntfs_dir_emit() and hdr_find_e()

The bounds check in ntfs_dir_emit() compares fname->name_len (a
character count) against e->size (a byte count) without accounting
for the 2-byte-per-character UTF-16LE encoding or the ATTR_FILE_NAME
header size:

  if (fname->name_len + sizeof(struct NTFS_DE) > le16_to_cpu(e->size))

This computes: name_len + 16 > e_size

The correct check must account for the ATTR_FILE_NAME header (66 bytes
before the name) and the UTF-16LE character size (2 bytes each):

  sizeof(NTFS_DE) + offsetof(ATTR_FILE_NAME, name) +
  name_len * sizeof(short) > e_size

Which computes: 16 + 66 + name_len * 2 > e_size

The correct calculation already exists as fname_full_size() in ntfs.h
and is used in cmp_fnames(), namei.c, and fslog.c, but was not used
in the readdir path.

A crafted NTFS image with an index entry containing a small e->size
but large fname->name_len bypasses the current check, causing
ntfs_utf16_to_nls() to read past the entry boundary.

Additionally, add a key_size validation in hdr_find_e() to ensure the
declared key_size does not exceed the available entry data, preventing
comparison functions from reading past entry boundaries on the lookup
path.