CVE-2026-89614: ntfs: bound the free-cluster bitmap scan to the volume

Severity: critical (CVSS 9.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.6% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-09-11 · updated 2026-10-19

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ntfs: bound the free-cluster bitmap scan to the volume vol->lcn_empty_bits_per_page is sized from vol->nr_clusters at mount, but ntfs_cluster_alloc() bounds its scan of that array by the size of $Bitmap. Those are independent on-disk quantities and the mount-time check only rejects a $Bitmap that is too small, so an image whose $Bitmap covers more clusters than the volume has lets the scan index past the array. A run whose LCN lies in that gap takes the allocator straight there, since the caller passes the file's own last LCN as its locality hint. KASAN reports a slab out-of-bounds read when a file on such a volume is extended. Clamp the scan to what that array covers, mirroring the max_index calculation the mount-time scan already uses, and reject a decoded LCN at or beyond nr_clusters in the mapping pairs decoder. Conforming volumes are unaffected.

Affected products

Linux kernel: 7.1 — fixed in 7.3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 7.3. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

Get alerted when CVE-2026-89614 or the next vulnerability affects your stack