CVE-2026-72189 ntfs: fail attrlist updates when the superblock is inactive
A self-deadlock in the Linux kernel NTFS driver during inode eviction can cause a system hang, requiring a local attacker to trigger specific filesystem operations.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-72189?
CVE-2026-72189 is a denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 15 Aug 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ntfs: fail attrlist updates when the superblock is inactive
generic_shutdown_super() clears SB_ACTIVE before evicting cached inodes. If eviction selects the fake inode for a base inode's unnamed $ATTRIBUTE_LIST attribute, ntfs_evict_big_inode() drops the fake inode's reference on the base inode while the fake inode is still hashed and marked I_FREEING.
That iput can synchronously write back the base inode. The writeback path may update mapping pairs and call ntfs_attrlist_update(), which unconditionally calls ntfs_attr_iget() for the same $ATTRIBUTE_LIST fake inode. VFS then finds the I_FREEING inode and waits for eviction to finish, but the current task is still inside that eviction path, causing a self-deadlock in find_inode().
Fix this by mirroring the teardown guard used by __ntfs_write_inode(): once SB_ACTIVE has been cleared, do not try to iget the attribute-list fake inode. Return -EIO so teardown aborts the update instead of waiting on the inode it is evicting.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-72189?
How do I fix CVE-2026-72189?
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-2026-72189 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-72189 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2026-72189, GHSA-h6g4-x7wq-fhjg, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-72189.