Local stale-data disclosure via ignored zeroing failure
Published Sep 25, 2026 · Updated Sep 25, 2026
Information disclosure in Linux 7.1 allows local users to read stale on-disk data after an NTFS allocation failure. In ntfs_attr_fallocate(), the check expected a positive return from ntfs_dio_zero_range(), although that helper returns zero or a negative errno, so failed zeroing was ignored and uninitialized clusters became readable file data. The path requires local write access to an NTFS file and a block-zeroing failure; published material reports stale-data exposure, not code execution or service interruption.
Summary
What happened
Information disclosure in Linux 7.1 allows local users to read stale on-disk data after an NTFS allocation failure. In ntfs_attr_fallocate(), the check expected a positive return from ntfs_dio_zero_range(), although that helper returns zero or a negative errno, so failed zeroing was ignored and uninitialized clusters became readable file data. The path requires local write access to an NTFS file and a block-zeroing failure; published material reports stale-data exposure, not code execution or service interruption.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-98137
- Published
- Sep 25, 2026
- Updated
- Sep 25, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- T1005
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- Unavailable
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 25, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Sep 25, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
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- Affected versionversion=495e90fa334828d4119061e2726af51d0a0fb4ed <56392b0d5290ff2b05fc673bc07803b8ae4cfd1b
- Affected versionversion=495e90fa334828d4119061e2726af51d0a0fb4ed <607a9478833db656e7ceac8e9e382fa4acfde545
- Affected versionversion=7.1
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
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Activity data is delayed. The latest report is Sep 28, 2026.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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