CVE-2026-72194
Received
Received - Intake
Stack Overflow in Linux Kernel NTFS3 Driver
Vulnerability report for CVE-2026-72194, including description, CVSS score, EPSS score, affected products, exploitability, helpful resources, and attack-flow context.
Publication date: 2026-08-15
Last updated on: 2026-08-15
Assigner: kernel.org
Description
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
fs/ntfs3: add depth limit to indx_find_buffer to prevent stack overflow
indx_find_buffer() recursively descends the B+ tree index with no depth
limit. A crafted NTFS image with circular index node references causes
unbounded recursion, overflowing the kernel stack and panicking the
system.
This is reachable by mounting a malicious NTFS filesystem (e.g. from a
USB drive via desktop automount) and deleting a file whose index entry
triggers the rebalancing fallback path in indx_delete_entry().
Add a depth parameter and bail out with -EINVAL when it reaches the
fnd->nodes array bound, matching the constraint already enforced by
fnd_push() in indx_find().
The related function indx_find() was previously patched for a similar
infinite-loop issue (commit 1732053c8a6b), but indx_find_buffer() was
missed.
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
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Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendor | Product | Version / Range |
|---|---|---|
| linux | kernel | * |
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-UNKNOWN |