Quick answers
- Is CVE-2026-98139 exploited in the wild?
- No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-98139 being exploited in the wild.
- How severe is CVE-2026-98139?
- Informational severity, published 25 September 2026.
- Which products and versions are affected?
- Unknown Linux kernel multiple versions through at least 6.9 and 7.0+ (fix applied to stable branches).
- Is there a fix for CVE-2026-98139?
- A patch was published on 2026-08-21: upstream fix committed Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.
- How is CVE-2026-98139 attacked?
- It is attacked with local access, in an operating system.
- Am I affected by CVE-2026-98139?
- Check whether you run Unknown Linux kernel at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.
Technical details
The ntfs_cluster_free_from_rl_nolock() function in fs/ntfs/lcnalloc.c fails to properly verify that ntfs_bitmap_clear_run() succeeded before incrementing the nr_freed counter. When a bitmap clear operation fails and rolls back partial modifications, the failed run's length was still added to nr_freed, inflating vol->free_clusters. The fix ensures nr_freed is only incremented when the bitmap clear operation returns success (err == 0).
Affected products
- <UNKNOWN> Linux kernel multiple versions through at least 6.9 and 7.0+ (fix applied to stable branches)
Timeline
- 2026-09-25: disclosed
- 2026-08-21: patched: upstream fix committed
- 2026-09-21: other: fix merged into stable branches