CVE-2026-45915
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fat: avoid parent link count underflow in rmdir Corrupted FAT images can leave a directory inode with an incorrect i_nlink (e.g. 2 even though subdirectories exist). rmdir then unconditionally calls drop_nlink(dir) and can drive i_nlink to 0, triggering the WARN_ON in drop_nlink(). Add a sanity check in vfat_rmdir() and msdos_rmdir(): only drop the parent link count when it is at least 3, otherwise report a filesystem error.
Affected versions
Linux kernel versions
2.6.19
and later are affected. Fixed in
5.10.252,
5.15.202,
6.1.165,
6.6.128,
6.12.75,
6.18.14,
6.19.4,
7.0
and their respective stable series.
References
The following references provide additional information about CVE-2026-45915 including vendor advisories, patch commits, exploit details, and third-party analysis. Links are sourced from the NIST NVD database.
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PatchKernel patch commithttps://git.kernel.org/stable/c/17866f8a0822d414cb02e621cf003a7d04396ef8
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PatchKernel patch commithttps://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7fe0de287e931e07cb96ecf1f449b2ebdb0e1115
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PatchKernel patch commithttps://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8cafcb881364af5ef3a8b9fed4db254054033d8a
Frequently asked questions
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What is CVE-2026-45915?
CVE-2026-45915 is a unscored severity Linux kernel vulnerability . It affects Linux kernel versions from 2.6.19 onward and has been patched in 5.10.252, 5.15.202, 6.1.165 and others. CVE-2026-45915 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
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Is there a patch available for CVE-2026-45915?
Yes — CVE-2026-45915 has been patched. Fixed versions include 5.10.252, 5.15.202, 6.1.165 and others. If you are running Linux kernel 2.6.19 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.
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Is CVE-2026-45915 actively exploited?
No — CVE-2026-45915 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.