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Fencer Vulns
high 8.8

CVE-2026-43187 json

xfs: delete attr leaf freemap entries when empty

published 2026-05-06 6 mo ago modified 2026-10-19 20 d ago also EUVD-2026-27746

cvss
8.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.5%
EPSS 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 40%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

xfs: delete attr leaf freemap entries when empty

Back in commit 2a2b5932db6758 ("xfs: fix attr leaf header freemap.size underflow"), Brian Foster observed that it's possible for a small freemap at the end of the end of the xattr entries array to experience a size underflow when subtracting the space consumed by an expansion of the entries array. There are only three freemap entries, which means that it is not a complete index of all free space in the leaf block.

This code can leave behind a zero-length freemap entry with a nonzero base. Subsequent setxattr operations can increase the base up to the point that it overlaps with another freemap entry. This isn't in and of itself a problem because the code in _leaf_add that finds free space ignores any freemap entry with zero size.

However, there's another bug in the freemap update code in _leaf_add, which is that it fails to update a freemap entry that begins midway through the xattr entry that was just appended to the array. That can result in the freemap containing two entries with the same base but different sizes (0 for the "pushed-up" entry, nonzero for the entry that's actually tracking free space). A subsequent _leaf_add can then allocate xattr namevalue entries on top of the entries array, leading to data loss. But fixing that is for later.

For now, eliminate the possibility of confusion by zeroing out the base of any freemap entry that has zero size. Because the freemap is not intended to be a complete index of free space, a subsequent failure to find any free space for a new xattr will trigger block compaction, which regenerates the freemap.

It looks like this bug has been in the codebase for quite a long time.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 5.10.252, 5.15.202, 6.1.165, 6.6.128, 6.12.75, 6.18.16, 6.19.6, 7.0
  • linux Debian 12 6.1.170-1
  • linux Debian 13 6.12.85-1
  • linux Debian 14 6.19.6-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-43187

  • linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-186.196
  • linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-134.134
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1112.119
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1060.63
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1112.122
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1063.69
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1108.114
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1058.64

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-43187

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel-syms SLES 16.0, Linux Micro Extras 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.36.1
  • kernel-obs-build Linux Micro Extras 6.2 6.12.0-160000.36.1
  • kernel-rt Linux Micro 6.2 6.12.0-160000.36.1
  • kernel-64kb SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.36.1
  • kernel-source SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.36.1
  • kernel-default SLES 16.0, SLE High Availability Extension 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2 +1 more 6.12.0-160000.36.1
  • kernel-default-base SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.36.1.160000.2.17
  • kernel-azure SLES for SAP applications 16.0, SLES 16.0 6.12.0-160000.36.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:22742-1SUSE-SU-2026:22769-1SUSE-SU-2026:22835-1SUSE-SU-2026:22812-1SUSE-SU-2026:2799-1SUSE-SU-2026:2722-1

  • kernel-rt openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.36.1
  • dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.36.1
  • kernel-64kb openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.36.1
  • kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.36.1
  • kernel-azure openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.36.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.36.1
  • kernel-source openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.36.1
  • kernel-default openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.36.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:21388-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2026-43187 updated cvss 5.5

kernel: xfs: delete attr leaf freemap entries when empty

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more
    affected: workaround, no fix available “To mitigate this issue, prevent the xfs module from being loaded. See https://access.redhat.com/solutions/41278 for instructions.”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more
    affected: workaround, no fix available, no fix planned “To mitigate this issue, prevent the xfs module from being loaded. See https://access.redhat.com/solutions/41278 for instructions.”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel
    affected: workaround, no fix available “To mitigate this issue, prevent the xfs module from being loaded. See https://access.redhat.com/solutions/41278 for instructions.”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
24 d ago

Exploit prediction

0.47% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 40% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 8.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-190 Integer Overflow or Wraparound
  • CWE-191 Integer Underflow (Wrap or Wraparound)
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.