CVE-2025-71267 PUBLISHED

fs: ntfs3: fix infinite loop triggered by zero-sized ATTR_LIST

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 17.03.2026 Published: 18.03.2026 Updated: 18.03.2026

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

fs: ntfs3: fix infinite loop triggered by zero-sized ATTR_LIST

We found an infinite loop bug in the ntfs3 file system that can lead to a Denial-of-Service (DoS) condition.

A malformed NTFS image can cause an infinite loop when an ATTR_LIST attribute indicates a zero data size while the driver allocates memory for it.

When ntfs_load_attr_list() processes a resident ATTR_LIST with data_size set to zero, it still allocates memory because of al_aligned(0). This creates an inconsistent state where ni->attr_list.size is zero, but ni->attr_list.le is non-null. This causes ni_enum_attr_ex to incorrectly assume that no attribute list exists and enumerates only the primary MFT record. When it finds ATTR_LIST, the code reloads it and restarts the enumeration, repeating indefinitely. The mount operation never completes, hanging the kernel thread.

This patch adds validation to ensure that data_size is non-zero before memory allocation. When a zero-sized ATTR_LIST is detected, the function returns -EINVAL, preventing a DoS vulnerability.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to 9267d99fade76d44d4a133599524031fe684156e (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to 976e6a7c51fabf150478decbe8ef5d9a26039b7c (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to 8d8c70b57dbeda3eb165c0940b97e85373ca9354 (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to 7ef219656febf5ae06ae56b1fce47ebd05f92b68 (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to 9779a6eaaabdf47aa57910d352b398ad742e6a5f (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to fd508939dbca5eceefb2d0c2564beb15469572f2 (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to 06909b2549d631a47fcda249d34be26f7ca1711d (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • unaffected from 5.15.202 to 5.15.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.1.165 to 6.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.6.128 to 6.6.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.75 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.16 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.19.6 to 6.19.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.0-rc1 to * (incl.)

References