Bug 2540548 (CVE-2026-97438) - CVE-2026-97438 kernel: fs/ntfs3: validate index entry key bounds
Summary: CVE-2026-97438 kernel: fs/ntfs3: validate index entry key bounds
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2026-97438
Product: Security Response
Classification: Other
Component: vulnerability
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Product Security DevOps Team
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2026-09-24 17:12 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2026-09-29 14:27 UTC (History)
17 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed:
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-09-24 17:12:44 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

fs/ntfs3: validate index entry key bounds

[BUG]
A malformed NTFS directory index entry can advertise a key_size larger
than the bytes actually present in its NTFS_DE payload. Directory lookup
then passes that malformed key to cmp_fnames(), which can read past the
end of the kmalloc'ed index buffer.

BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in fname_full_size fs/ntfs3/ntfs.h:590 [inline]
BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in cmp_fnames+0x1ea/0x230 fs/ntfs3/index.c:46
Read of size 1 at addr ffff88801c313018 by task syz.6.3365/9279

Call Trace:
 __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:94 [inline]
 dump_stack_lvl+0xbe/0x130 lib/dump_stack.c:120
 print_address_description mm/kasan/report.c:378 [inline]
 print_report+0xd1/0x650 mm/kasan/report.c:482
 kasan_report+0xfb/0x140 mm/kasan/report.c:595
 __asan_report_load1_noabort+0x14/0x30 mm/kasan/report_generic.c:378
 fname_full_size fs/ntfs3/ntfs.h:590 [inline]
 cmp_fnames+0x1ea/0x230 fs/ntfs3/index.c:46
 hdr_find_e.isra.0+0x3ed/0x670 fs/ntfs3/index.c:762
 indx_find+0x4b5/0x900 fs/ntfs3/index.c:1186
 dir_search_u+0x2c0/0x460 fs/ntfs3/dir.c:254
 ntfs_lookup+0x1cc/0x2a0 fs/ntfs3/namei.c:85
 __lookup_slow+0x241/0x450 fs/namei.c:1816
 lookup_slow fs/namei.c:1833 [inline]
 walk_component+0x31c/0x570 fs/namei.c:2151
 link_path_walk+0x592/0xd60 fs/namei.c:2519
 path_lookupat+0x138/0x660 fs/namei.c:2675
 filename_lookup+0x1f3/0x560 fs/namei.c:2705
 filename_setxattr+0xad/0x1c0 fs/xattr.c:660
 path_setxattrat+0x1d8/0x280 fs/xattr.c:713
 __do_sys_lsetxattr fs/xattr.c:754 [inline]
 __se_sys_lsetxattr fs/xattr.c:750 [inline]
 __x64_sys_lsetxattr+0xd0/0x150 fs/xattr.c:750
 ...

Allocated by task 9279:
 kasan_save_stack+0x39/0x70 mm/kasan/common.c:56
 kasan_save_track+0x14/0x40 mm/kasan/common.c:77
 kasan_save_alloc_info+0x37/0x60 mm/kasan/generic.c:573
 poison_kmalloc_redzone mm/kasan/common.c:400 [inline]
 __kasan_kmalloc+0xc3/0xd0 mm/kasan/common.c:417
 kasan_kmalloc include/linux/kasan.h:262 [inline]
 __do_kmalloc_node mm/slub.c:5650 [inline]
 __kmalloc_noprof+0x2bd/0x900 mm/slub.c:5662
 kmalloc_noprof include/linux/slab.h:961 [inline]
 indx_read+0x41d/0xad0 fs/ntfs3/index.c:1059
 indx_find+0x447/0x900 fs/ntfs3/index.c:1179
 dir_search_u+0x2c0/0x460 fs/ntfs3/dir.c:254
 ntfs_lookup+0x1cc/0x2a0 fs/ntfs3/namei.c:85
 __lookup_slow+0x241/0x450 fs/namei.c:1816
 lookup_slow fs/namei.c:1833 [inline]
 walk_component+0x31c/0x570 fs/namei.c:2151
 link_path_walk+0x592/0xd60 fs/namei.c:2519
 path_lookupat+0x138/0x660 fs/namei.c:2675
 filename_lookup+0x1f3/0x560 fs/namei.c:2705
 filename_setxattr+0xad/0x1c0 fs/xattr.c:660
 path_setxattrat+0x1d8/0x280 fs/xattr.c:713
 __do_sys_lsetxattr fs/xattr.c:754 [inline]
 __se_sys_lsetxattr fs/xattr.c:750 [inline]
 __x64_sys_lsetxattr+0xd0/0x150 fs/xattr.c:750
 ...

[CAUSE]
The index-header validators only validated INDEX_HDR-level geometry.
They did not walk each NTFS_DE to verify entry alignment, subnode
layout, or that key_size fit inside the entry payload. They also
allowed a last sentinel entry to carry a non-zero key_size.

[FIX]
Walk every NTFS_DE in ntfs3's index-header validators and reject
entries with invalid layout, mismatched subnode state, oversized
key_size, or non-zero sentinel keys before lookup or log replay can
consume them.


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