GHSA-h6x4-53v9-p3rgCriticalCVSS 9.8

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ntfs: validate non-resident...

Published
September 11, 2026
Last Modified
September 13, 2026

🔗 CVE IDs covered (1)

📋 Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ntfs: validate non-resident attribute offsets

ntfs_attr_update_meta() shifts the attribute name when converting between non-sparse and sparse attributes. Converting to sparse also adds the compressed_size field before the name and mapping pairs, requiring eight additional bytes in the attribute record.

However, the validator does not check that name_offset is within safe boundaries for these operations or that the additional space is available. A malicious MFT record could set name_offset such that:

  1. The name is positioned at the very end of a non-sparse attribute. Converting to sparse would shift the name forward by 8 bytes, writing beyond the attribute boundary.

  2. The name overlaps with the mapping pairs, causing corruption during conversion.

Add validation to ensure:

  • For named attributes, name_offset is within valid bounds
  • Name does not extend beyond the attribute or overlap with mapping pairs
  • For non-sparse, non-compressed attributes, eight bytes are available after mapping_pairs_offset for the compressed_size field

The space check also covers unnamed attributes, for which name_offset = 0 is valid and no name range needs to be checked.

🔗 References (4)