Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ntfs: sanitize MFT references returned from ntfs_lookup_inode_by_name() ntfs_lookup_inode_by_name() returns MFT references read from directory index entries on disk. These values are untrusted, but the function can currently return an error-marked MFT reference to its callers without validating it. Callers later decode lookup failures with MREF_ERR(). A crafted NTFS image can set the MREF error bit while leaving the low bits as an arbitrary value, causing callers to consume a bogus pseudo-errno instead of treating the lookup result as corrupted on-disk metadata. Fix this at the source by normalizing every error-marked MFT reference returned from ntfs_lookup_inode_by_name() to ERR_MREF(-EIO). Apply this to all four directory lookup return paths so every caller gets a validated result without needing additional checks or an API change. This keeps the sanitization in the common lookup helper, which is cleaner than duplicating validation in each caller.
References2
Metrics
- CVSS 3.1
-
9.1
CRITICAL
Score source: CNA
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H - EPSS — exploit probability
- 1% percentile: 43 · as of 11 November 2026
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