Improper access control in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-72186
Published: August 16, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU143415
CSH Severity: Low
CVSS v4: 6.8 [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]
CVE-ID: CVE-2026-72186
CWE-ID: CWE-284
Exploitation vector: Local access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vulnerability details
The vulnerability allows a local user to cause a denial of service.
The vulnerability exists due to improper access control in the NTFS system file handling in fs/ntfs/inode.c when writing exposed system files from userspace. A local user can write to a system file such as $Bitmap to cause a denial of service.
Only regular metadata files exposed via show_sys_files are affected; directories such as the root and $Extend are not included.
Affected software
Linux kernel
How to mitigate CVE-2026-72186
Install security update from vendor's repository.
Linux kernel - update to 7.0 rc3