Improper input validation in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-46002
Published: May 28, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU132495
CSH Severity: Low
CVSS v4.0: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Clear
CVE-ID: CVE-2026-46002
CWE-ID: CWE-20
Exploitation vector: Local access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vendor: Linux Foundation
Affected software:
Linux kernel
Linux kernel
Detailed vulnerability description
The vulnerability allows a local user to cause a denial of service.
The vulnerability exists due to improper input validation in ext2_iget() when loading a crafted ext2 filesystem image containing an inode with zero i_nlink, non-zero i_mode, and zero i_dtime. A local user can mount or otherwise present a specially crafted filesystem image to trigger kernel warnings and cause a denial of service.
The issue is triggered when the malformed inode reaches VFS name operations such as unlink, rename, or rmdir.
How to mitigate CVE-2026-46002
Install security update from vendor's repository.
Sources
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/25947cc5b2374cd5bf627fe3141496444260d04f
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2dde6377ab2e46bb80cf066c659ef016f3ad7a9b
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/32e0b925572686399243834ec99e2a9d85c62eae
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/470264bbec499e276a89a6431144ae58f411ea4d
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d3af04a43db86379df7438bf8bade71685b8a239