CVE-2025-71266: Linux Kernel

Medium severity, CVSS 5.5. EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fs: ntfs3: check return value of indx_find to avoid infinite loop We found an infinite loop bug in the ntfs3 file system that can lead to a Denial-of-Service (DoS) condition. A malformed dentry in the ntfs3 filesystem can cause the kernel to hang during the lookup operations. By setting the HAS_SUB_NODE flag in an INDEX_ENTRY within a directory's INDEX_ALLOCATION block and manipulating the VCN pointer, an attacker can cause the indx_find() function to repeatedly read the same block, allocating 4 KB of memory each time. The kernel lacks VCN loop detection and depth limits, causing memory exhaustion and an OOM crash. This patch adds a return value check for fnd_push() to prevent a memory exhaustion vulnerability caused by infinite loops. When the index exceeds the size of the fnd->nodes array, fnd_push() returns -EINVAL. The indx_find() function checks this return value and stops processing, preventing further memory allocation.

Affected products

• Linux Linux Kernel: from 5.15.1, before 5.15.202 (fixed in 5.15.202); from 5.16, before 6.1.165 (fixed in 6.1.165); from 6.2, before 6.6.128 (fixed in 6.6.128); from 6.7, before 6.12.75 (fixed in 6.12.75); from 6.13, before 6.18.16 (fixed in 6.18.16); from 6.19, before 6.19.6 (fixed in 6.19.6); …

Published 2026-03-18. Last modified 2026-07-14.