What is CVE-2026-72318?

CVE-2026-72318 is a Critical severity Linux kernel vulnerability with a CVSS score of 9.4 out of 10, affecting Linux kernel versions from 4.11 onward and patched in 6.1.178, 6.6.145, 6.12.97 and others. CVE-2026-72318 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2026-72318?

CVE-2026-72318 has a CVSS score of 9.4 out of 10, rated Critical severity. The vector string is CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:H.

Is there a patch available for CVE-2026-72318?

Yes, CVE-2026-72318 has been patched. Fixed versions include 6.1.178, 6.6.145, 6.12.97 and others. If you are running Linux kernel 4.11 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.

Is CVE-2026-72318 actively exploited?

CVE-2026-72318 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

CVE-2026-72318

Critical

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cifs: validate DFS referral string offsets parse_dfs_referrals() validates that the response header and referral array fit in the received buffer, but each referral also contains string offsets supplied by the server. Those offsets are used to compute the DfsPath and NetworkAddress string pointers without checking whether they still point inside the response buffer. A malformed referral can therefore make the computed pointer exceed the end of the buffer. The resulting negative max_len is then passed to cifs_strndup_from_utf16(), and the non-Unicode path forwards it to kstrndup() as a size_t, allowing strnlen() to read out of bounds. Validate each string offset before deriving the string pointer.

Package Linux Kernel

Published 2026-08-15

Last modified 2026-08-17

CVSS version 3.1

Patch available

Yes

CVSS 3.1 score

9.4

out of 10

Critical

Attack Vector

Network

Attack Complexity

Low

Privileges Required

None

User Interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

High

Integrity

Low

Availability

High

Vector string

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

Affected versions

Linux kernel versions 4.11 and later are affected. Fixed in 6.1.178, 6.6.145, 6.12.97, 6.18.40, 7.1.5, 7.2 and their respective stable series.

Affected from

≥ 4.11

Fixed in

✓ 6.1.178 6.1.x ✓ 6.6.145 6.6.x ✓ 6.12.97 6.12.x ✓ 6.18.40 6.18.x ✓ 7.1.5 7.1.x ✓ 7.2

References

6 total

Showing 5 of 6 references View all on NVD

Details

CVE ID CVE-2026-72318

Severity Critical

CVSS score 9.4 / 10

CVSS version 3.1

Published 2026-08-15

Modified 2026-08-17

KEV No

Patch

Yes

Package linux

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-72318?

CVE-2026-72318 is a Critical severity Linux kernel vulnerability with a CVSS score of 9.4 out of 10 . It affects Linux kernel versions from 4.11 onward and has been patched in 6.1.178, 6.6.145, 6.12.97 and others. CVE-2026-72318 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
What is the CVSS score for CVE-2026-72318?

CVE-2026-72318 has a CVSS score of 9.4 out of 10, rated Critical severity (CVSS 3.1). The vector string is CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:H.
Is there a patch available for CVE-2026-72318?

Yes. CVE-2026-72318 has been patched. Fixed versions include 6.1.178, 6.6.145, 6.12.97 and others. If you are running Linux kernel 4.11 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.
Is CVE-2026-72318 actively exploited?

No. CVE-2026-72318 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.