CVE-2026-89616: Linux

High severity, CVSS 7.5. EPSS: 0.4% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fs/ntfs3: fix info-leak on partial LZNT decompress in ni_read_frame() ni_read_frame() decompresses an LZNT $DATA frame into the vmapped target pages and then trusts decompress_lznt()'s return value: unc_size = decompress_lznt(frame_ondisk, ondisk_size, frame_mem, frame_size); if ((ssize_t)unc_size < 0) err = unc_size; else if (!unc_size || unc_size > frame_size) err = -EINVAL; decompress_lznt() stops as soon as the compressed stream is exhausted (e.g. a zero chunk header) and returns the number of bytes it actually wrote, which may be far less than frame_size. The bytes between unc_size and frame_size are never written. The only memset() that follows zeroes the region beyond i_valid; when the frame lies entirely within the file's valid size that memset() does not run, so the gap retains whatever was in the just-vmapped pages. All pages are then marked uptodate and returned to userspace, disclosing uninitialized (recently-freed) kernel page memory. A crafted compressed file whose stream decompresses to only a few bytes leaks the remainder of every frame on a plain read(2), which is enough to recover kernel pointers and defeat KASLR. Zero the [unc_size, frame_size) tail immediately after a successful LZNT decompress so the remainder reads back as zero.

Affected products

• Linux Linux: from 5.15, before 5.15.221 (fixed in 5.15.221); from 5.16, before 6.1.188 (fixed in 6.1.188); from 6.2, before 6.6.157 (fixed in 6.6.157); from 6.7, before 6.12.109 (fixed in 6.12.109); from 6.13, before 6.18.50 (fixed in 6.18.50); from 6.19, before 7.2.4 (fixed in 7.2.4)

Published 2026-09-11. Last modified 2026-09-14.