CVE-2026-72205 ntfs: free volume-wide resources on fill_super failure
A memory leak in the Linux kernel NTFS driver allows local attackers to exhaust system memory by repeatedly triggering mount failures, leading to denial of service.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-72205?
CVE-2026-72205 is a memory corruption 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: free volume-wide resources on fill_super failure
ntfs_fill_super()'s err_out_now path frees only the volume struct via kfree(vol), leaving several vol-owned allocations behind on every mount failure:
- vol->nls_map, loaded by ntfs_init_fs_context() via load_nls_default() (or replaced by an explicit nls= option in ntfs_parse_param()), is never unload_nls()'d.
- vol->volume_label, allocated by load_system_files() through ntfs_ucstonls() once the $Volume name attribute has been parsed, is not released by load_system_files()'s own error labels nor by the fill_super() inline cleanup that only runs on d_make_root() failure. Any later failure inside load_system_files() leaks it.
- vol->lcn_empty_bits_per_page was kvfree()'d in unl_upcase_iput_tmp_ino_err_out_now without clearing the pointer, so it could not be folded into a single common cleanup.
Because the failure paths never call ntfs_volume_free() and never reach the d_make_root() inline cleanup block (it sits above the label and is jumped over by the load_system_files() / kvmalloc failure gotos), these resources accumulate per failed mount attempt with no chance of recovery short of unloading the module. This is a silent leak: the inodes loaded prior to failure remain hashed but generic_shutdown_super() skips evict_inodes() when sb->s_root is unset, so no CHECK_DATA_CORRUPTION warning is emitted either.
Move the per-volume frees down to err_out_now and drop the lcn_empty_bits_per_page kvfree() from the upper label so the cleanup is performed exactly once on every failure path. Using unconditional kvfree() / kfree() / unload_nls() is safe because they all accept NULL and the upper labels that previously freed nls_map (the d_make_root() inline cleanup) already clear the pointer.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-72205?
How do I fix CVE-2026-72205?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.
Is CVE-2026-72205 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-72205 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2026-72205, GHSA-cx24-8ppf-cvpr, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-72205.