Vulnerability in Linux

CVE-2026-80673

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ntfs: bound the look-ahead attribute-list entry in ntfs_external_attr_find() When resolving an attribute lookup with a non-zero @lowest_vcn, ntfs_external_attr_find() peeks at the next $ATTRIBUTE_LIST entry to decide whether to keep searching, but bounds that not-yet-validated entry only with "(u8 *)next_al_entry + 6 < al_end" (which proves just bytes 0..6 are in range) and "(u8 *)next_al_entry + length <= al_end" with an attacker-controlled, non-8-aligned length. It then reads next_al_entry->lowest_vcn (an __le64 at offset 8) and the name at next_al_entry->name_offset, both of which can lie past al_end -- the exact end of the kvmalloc'd attribute-list buffer (allocated at the on-disk attr_list_size, no rounding). A crafted on-disk $ATTRIBUTE_LIST whose last entry sits a few bytes before al_end therefore yields a slab out-of-bounds read when the inode is read. Validate the look-ahead entry with ntfs_attr_list_entry_is_valid() (added in patch 1/3) before dereferencing lowest_vcn and the name, so the same fixed-header, length and name bounds the main attribute-list walk uses now guard this read too.

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 9.8 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.006 (44.7th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 45th percentile — 44.7% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2026-80673: held from 0.004 to 0.006.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.004 · newest: 0.006 · change: +0.002

Affected products

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-80673?
CVE-2026-80673 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Linux. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2026-08-28.
How severe is CVE-2026-80673?
Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.