Skip to content
Fencer Vulns
no cvss —

CVE-2026-89787 json

ext4: check dir entry fits before reading the hash trailer in ext4_search_dir()

published 2026-09-16 53 d ago modified 2026-10-19 20 d ago also EUVD-2026-80308

cvss
—
not scored
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 11%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

ext4: check dir entry fits before reading the hash trailer in ext4_search_dir()

For casefolded encrypted directories ext4 stores an 8-byte hash trailer after the name (EXT4_DIRENT_HASHES()), at an offset derived from de->name_len. On the sb_no_casefold_compat_fallback() path ext4_match() reads that trailer, but ext4_search_dir()'s by-hand pre-check only tests de->name + de->name_len <= dlimit, which proves the name fits, not the rounded trailer. A crafted entry whose name ends at the block boundary passes the check while EXT4_DIRENT_HASHES(de) lands past the block end, so ext4_match() reads out of bounds on an ordinary lookup. KASAN reports it as a use-after-free when the page after the directory block holds a freed object:

BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in ext4_match (fs/ext4/namei.c:1435) Read of size 4 at addr ffff888010458000 by task exploit Call Trace: ext4_match (fs/ext4/namei.c:1435) ext4_search_dir (fs/ext4/namei.c:1470) __ext4_find_entry (fs/ext4/namei.c:1268 fs/ext4/namei.c:1632) ext4_lookup (fs/ext4/namei.c:1703 fs/ext4/namei.c:1769) ... filename_lookup (fs/namei.c:2842) vfs_statx (fs/stat.c:353) __do_sys_newfstatat (fs/stat.c:538) do_syscall_64 (arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94) entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:121)

Require, for hash-in-dirent directories, that the whole entry including the rounded trailer fits before calling ext4_match(). This is the same bound ext4_check_dir_entry() already enforces via ext4_dir_rec_len(), so no well-formed entry is rejected. The other caller, ext4_find_dest_de(), runs ext4_check_dir_entry() first and is unaffected.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 5.15.221, 6.1.188, 6.6.157, 6.12.110, 6.18.52, 7.2.6, 7.3
  • linux Debian 12 6.1.190-1
  • linux Debian 13 6.12.111-1
  • linux Debian 14 7.2.6-1
  • linux-6.12 Debian 12 6.12.111-1~deb12u1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-89787

  • linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-202.212
  • linux Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-42.42
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1119.126
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1016.17
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1120.130
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1016.18
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1115.121
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1113.117

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-89787

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-source Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-159998.55.1
  • kernel-default Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-159998.55.1
  • kernel-kvmsmall Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-159998.55.1
  • kernel-default-base Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-159998.55.1.159998.21.42
  • kernel-64kb SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.90.1
  • kernel-syms SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.90.1
  • kernel-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.90.1
  • kernel-source SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.90.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:24550-1SUSE-SU-2026:5091-1

  • kernel-source openSUSE Tumbleweed 7.2.7-1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:11880-1

  • kernel Azure Linux 3.0 6.6.157.1-1

azure linux advisories AZL-101439

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

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-2026-89787 updated cvss 5.5

kernel: ext4: check dir entry fits before reading the hash trailer in ext4_search_dir()

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9 Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9
    affected: workaround, no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • 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 Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8
    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

Exploit prediction

0.21% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 11% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

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.