CVE-2026-43245 ntfs: ->d_compare() must not block

What is CVE-2026-43245?

CVE-2026-43245 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 6 May 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ntfs: ->d_compare() must not block

... so don't use __getname() there. Switch it (and ntfs_d_hash(), while we are at it) to kmalloc(PATH_MAX, GFP_NOWAIT). Yes, ntfs_d_hash() almost certainly can do with smaller allocations, but let ntfs folks deal with that - keep the allocation size as-is for now.

Stop abusing names_cachep in ntfs, period - various uses of that thing in there have nothing to do with pathnames; just use k[mz]alloc() and be done with that. For now let's keep sizes as-in, but AFAICS none of the users actually want PATH_MAX.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-43245?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2026-43245?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2026-43245 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-43245 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as AZL-85806, BELL-CVE-2026-43245, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-43245, GHSA-mq97-h32x-42x9, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2026-43245, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2026-43245 and 4 more.