CVE-2026-46169
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: hfsplus: fix uninit-value by validating catalog record size Syzbot reported a KMSAN uninit-value issue in hfsplus_strcasecmp().
Does this matter?
Lower severity and a low EPSS score (0.13%). Track it; it rarely justifies an emergency change on its own.
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: hfsplus: fix uninit-value by validating catalog record size Syzbot reported a KMSAN uninit-value issue in hfsplus_strcasecmp(). The root cause is that hfs_brec_read() doesn't validate that the on-disk record size matches the expected size for the record type being read. When mounting a corrupted filesystem, hfs_brec_read() may read less data than expected. For example, when reading a catalog thread record, the debug output showed: HFSPLUS_BREC_READ: rec_len=520, fd->entrylength=26 HFSPLUS_BREC_READ: WARNING - entrylength (26) < rec_len (520) - PARTIAL READ! hfs_brec_read() only validates that entrylength is not greater than the buffer size, but doesn't check if it's less than expected. It successfully reads 26 bytes into a 520-byte structure and returns success, leaving 494 bytes uninitialized. This uninitialized data in tmp.thread.nodeName then gets copied by hfsplus_cat_build_key_uni() and used by hfsplus_strcasecmp(), triggering the KMSAN warning when the uninitialized bytes are used as array indices in case_fold(). Fix by introducing hfsplus_brec_read_cat() wrapper that: 1. Calls hfs_brec_read() to read the data 2. Validates the record size based on the type field: - Fixed size for folder and file records - Variable size for thread records (depends on string length) 3. Returns -EIO if size doesn't match expected For thread records, check against HFSPLUS_MIN_THREAD_SZ before reading nodeName.length to avoid reading uninitialized data at call sites that don't zero-initialize the entry structure. Also initialize the tmp variable in hfsplus_find_cat() as defensive programming to ensure no uninitialized data even if validation is bypassed.
- CVSS 3.1
- 5.5 MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- EPSS
- 0.13% probability · 3th percentile
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-908
- Affected
- linux/linux kernel
- Source
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
References
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3003dbf62d151d47a6b90f71655292a51a05f244
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3bc337697c66db2e2a4a94f0509c282c1a014b86
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/61a790974ff7e533acbceca06c7d02f22bf96d4dPatch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8be69532e399eec9d9d990f6958b4ff2383b19b3
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/93e8d613f1a01b6637f387cc93f184cf7fb881d6Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a420904450962a562ad053a41a53a27755021b48Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b6b592275aeff184aa82fcf6abccd833fb71b393Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c91bbd6193c70a02c50c22e0fb1f60c3c5bd053aPatch
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.