Description

Out-of-bounds read in Windows NTFS allows an authorized attacker to disclose information locally.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "5.5",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-11T17:18:39.840Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-11T17:18:39.840Z",
  "executiveSummary": "This vulnerability is an out-of-bounds read security flaw affecting the Windows NTFS file system component.\nThe primary impact of this vulnerability is local information disclosure, allowing an unauthorized or low-privileged entity to access sensitive memory contents or unauthorized data structures.\nThe affected system component is Windows NTFS, impacting the underlying operating system's storage parsing mechanisms.\nThe risk implication centers on the potential leakage of sensitive kernel memory or file system metadata, which could be leveraged by adversaries to facilitate more complex multi-stage exploitation chains, such as bypassing security controls like Address Space Layout Randomization.\nAttacker capabilities are constrained to local access, requiring the adversary to have execution capabilities on the target host.\nExploitation requirements dictate that the attacker must be authorized to interact locally with the target system or file system structures, performing specifically crafted operations to trigger the out-of-bounds read condition within the parser.",
  "technicalDetails": "The root cause of the vulnerability stems from improper bounds checking within the Windows NTFS driver when processing specific file system requests or metadata structures.\nWhen the vulnerable component handles maliciously crafted inputs or corrupted structures, it fails to adequately validate input offsets or lengths prior to executing memory read operations.\nThis architectural flaw results in an out-of-bounds read condition, wherein the execution flow accesses memory addresses outside the allocated buffer boundaries.\nThe vulnerable component resides within the kernel-mode file system driver responsible for parsing and managing NTFS volumes.\nAuthentication and privilege requirements involve local system interaction; the attacker must possess local execution context to interface with the file system parsing routines.\nNetwork exposure is non-existent by default, as the attack vector is strictly local and cannot be triggered remotely without an independent remote vector to deliver local execution capabilities.\nThe attack flow begins when an attacker interacts with the local file system using specialized system calls or crafted disk structures that force the NTFS driver to evaluate out-of-bounds memory offsets.\nUpon processing the malicious input, the parsing routine reads adjacent kernel memory rather than terminating safely or handling the exception gracefully.\nThe payload behavior involves capturing or exposing the contents of the improperly read memory buffers, which may subsequently be returned to user-space or logged in a manner accessible to the attacker.\nPost-exploitation impact is characterized by unauthorized information disclosure, where leaked kernel memory structures can expose pointers, cryptographic secrets, or stack data, undermining overall host integrity and aiding subsequent privilege escalation vectors."
}