CVE-2026-89778 isofs: fix out-of-bounds page array access on empty zisofs block

Critical 9.8 Published Updated

A local attacker can trigger an out-of-bounds read in the Linux kernel's isofs module by mounting a crafted ISO9660 image, potentially causing a crash or leaking memory.

Exploited in the wild
Not known
Login needed
Not needed
Attackable
Over the internet
Victim action needed
Not needed
Fix
Available

What is CVE-2026-89778?

CVE-2026-89778 is a critical memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 16 Sep 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:

isofs: fix out-of-bounds page array access on empty zisofs block

zisofs_uncompress_block()'s empty-block fast path returns pcount << PAGE_SHIFT, ignoring the incoming poffset, unlike the decompression path which returns bytes produced relative to poffset. zisofs_fill_pages() uses that return to advance its page cursor, so when the zisofs block size is below PAGE_SIZE and a sub-page block leaves poffset partway into a page, a following empty block over-counts and advances pages[] one element past its end, after which "if (poffset && *pages)" reads pages[1] out of bounds. rock.c only rejects a block-size shift > 17, so a crafted "ZF" Rock Ridge record can set it below PAGE_SHIFT; the bug is reached by an ordinary read() of a compressed file on such a mounted ISO9660 image.

Return the byte count relative to poffset and zero only [poffset, PAGE_SIZE) of the first page, matching the decompression path. The page-aligned case (poffset == 0) is unaffected.

BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in zisofs_read_folio (fs/isofs/compress.c:290) Read of size 8 at addr ffff88800f5eac48 by task exploit/142 zisofs_read_folio (fs/isofs/compress.c:290) read_pages (mm/readahead.c:184) ... filemap_read (mm/filemap.c:2814) vfs_read (fs/read_write.c:574) __x64_sys_pread64 (fs/read_write.c:769) do_syscall_64 (arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94) entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:121) The buggy address is located 0 bytes to the right of the allocated 8-byte region in the kmalloc-8 cache

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-89778?

How do I fix CVE-2026-89778?

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-2026-89778 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-89778 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Sources

Also known as AZL-101652, BELL-CVE-2026-89778, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-89778, GHSA-vfmj-8pgc-h88m, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-89778.

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