CVE-2026-98318

HIGH CVSS 3.1: 7.8 EPSS 0.13%
Updated Oct 07, 2026
Linux
Parameter Value
CVSS 7.8 (HIGH)
Affected Versions 6.15.6 — 7.3-rc4
Fixed In 7.2.8
Vendor Linux
Public PoC No

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.

Attack Parameters

Attack Vector
Local
Requires local access
Attack Complexity
Low
Easy to exploit
Privileges Required
Low
Basic privileges needed
User Interaction
None
No user interaction needed

Impact Assessment

Confidentiality
High
Complete data leak
Integrity
High
Complete data modification
Availability
High
Complete denial of service

CVSS Vector v3.1

Vulnerable Products 3

Configuration From (including) Up to (excluding)
Linux Linux_Kernel
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
6.16 7.2.8
Linux Linux_Kernel
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
6.16 7.3-rc4
Linux Linux_Kernel
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
6.15.6 —