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CVE-2026-98318

HIGHCVSS 7.8/10EPSS 0.16%

Last modified

CVE-2026-98318 is a high-severity vulnerability rated 7.8/10 on the CVSS scale. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: smb: client: validate absolute native symlink targets before NT fixups With symlinkroot unset, an absolute target is copied without conversion to an NT drive path. Later code still assumes an NT prefix is present when modifying the target and calculating the print name length. For "/ab", this causes two failures: sym[5] and path[5] are written past their allocations, and plen -= 2 * poff subtracts an assumed 8-byte prefix from a 6-byte UTF-16 target, wrapping u16 plen to 65534. That underflow causes another overflow: memcpy() copies 65534 bytes into a 24-byte buffer. EPSS estimates a 0.16% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: smb: client: validate absolute native symlink targets before NT fixups With symlinkroot unset, an absolute target is copied without conversion to an NT drive path. Later code still assumes an NT prefix is present when modifying the target and calculating the print name length. For "/ab", this causes two failures: sym[5] and path[5] are written past their allocations, and plen -= 2 * poff subtracts an assumed 8-byte prefix from a 6-byte UTF-16 target, wrapping u16 plen to 65534. That underflow causes another overflow: memcpy() copies 65534 bytes into a 24-byte buffer. A user with write access to a mounted share can trigger these bugs with default settings. Validate the NT drive prefix, including an ASCII drive letter, before accessing fixed offsets or subtracting the prefix length.

Metrics

CVSS 3.1
7.8/10

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS Probability
0.16%

4.8th percentile

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days. Learn more

Affected Software

Source: CNA advisory (CVE.org). NVD analysis pending.

VendorProductVersions
LinuxLinux>= 3363da82e02f1bddc54faa92ea430c6532e2cd2e, < 6913ff607c2bc8694193e1fcc40bf16d75f35f16; >= 3363da82e02f1bddc54faa92ea430c6532e2cd2e, < 23c240d9509e15f72e4112fc95f0160ab32ec430; b6ea7b6c6be65149ab6b8e37a9dd1671f76add1b; >= 6.15.6, < 6.16
LinuxLinux6.16

References

Timeline

Published
Last Modified
Status
Received

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-98318?
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: smb: client: validate absolute native symlink targets before NT fixups With symlinkroot unset, an absolute target is copied without conversion to an NT drive path. Later code still assumes an NT prefix is present when modifying the target and calculating the print name length. For "/ab", this causes two failures: sym[5] and path[5] are written past their allocations, and plen -= 2 * poff subtracts an assumed 8-byte prefix from a 6-byte UTF-16 target, wrapping u16 plen to 65534. That underflow causes another overflow: memcpy() copies 65534 bytes into a 24-byte buffer. A user with write access to a mounted share can trigger these bugs with default settings. Validate the NT drive prefix, including an ASCII drive letter, before accessing fixed offsets or subtracting the prefix length.
How severe is CVE-2026-98318?
CVE-2026-98318 has a CVSS score of 7.8/10 (HIGH severity). The EPSS model estimates a 0.16% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
How do I fix CVE-2026-98318?
Check the vendor references and advisories linked above for patched versions and mitigation guidance. You can also run a Strix scan to test if your systems are affected.

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Source: NVD / NIST