Critical severity · published Aug 15, 2026
CVE-2026-72210
ntfs: fix off-by-one in mapping pairs decoding bounds checks
9.8
CVSS
0.6%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ntfs: fix off-by-one in mapping pairs decoding bounds checks
In ntfs_mapping_pairs_decompress(), attr_end points one byte past the
end of the attribute record:
attr_end = (u8 *)attr + le32_to_cpu(attr->length);
The two bounds checks validating that mapping pair data bytes fit within
the attribute use strict greater-than (>), which allows a one-byte
out-of-bounds read when the data extends exactly to attr_end:
b = *buf & 0xf;
if (b) {
if (unlikely(buf + b > attr_end)) // off-by-one
goto io_error;
for (deltaxcn = (s8)buf[b--]; b; b--)
deltaxcn = (deltaxcn << 8) + buf[b];
}
When buf + b == attr_end, the check evaluates to false and buf[b] reads
one byte past the valid attribute boundary. The same pattern appears in
the LCN delta bytes check.
Fix both checks to use >= so that buf[b] at exactly attr_end is
correctly rejected as out of bounds.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.6% · higher than 46% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
LI
Linux · Linux
1e9ea7e04472d4e5e12e58c881eaacfb3e49b669 before bfe835e535fe0aa5767fdd8116f62e835ba50b55; 1e9ea7e04472d4e5e12e58c881eaacfb3e49b669 before 18760a74ef7c28df93726445b5595162e62ed341; 7.1 · source: vendor
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-72210
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-72210
git.kernel.org
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/18760a74ef7c28df93726445b5595162e62ed341
git.kernel.org
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/bfe835e535fe0aa5767fdd8116f62e835ba50b55
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