High severity · published Oct 23, 2026
CVE-2026-98941
ext4: don't enable large folios on encrypted inodes
New
7.0
CVSS
0.1%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ext4: don't enable large folios on encrypted inodes
Commit 709f0f1f1bf5 ("ext4: add checks for large folio
incompatibilities when BS > PS") disables large folios at mount time
if the "encrypt" feature is set. However, enabling that feature on a
mounted filesystem circumvents that check, and writing encrypted data
results in a crash:
BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000028
Workqueue: ext4-rsv-conversion ext4_end_io_rsv_work
RIP: 0010:ext4_finish_bio+0xf7/0x3e0
Call Trace:
ext4_release_io_end+0x51/0x110
ext4_end_io_end+0x4c/0xe0
ext4_end_io_rsv_work+0xb3/0x100
Fix this by disabling large folios on encrypted inodes, as is
already done for inodes that use data journaling.
This affects all kernels between v6.19 and v7.2, but it is not needed
in v7.3, where the code was significantly refactored.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
High
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.1% · higher than 3% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
LI
Linux · Linux
709f0f1f1bf5ca62a000084e5446ca6b57c8678c before 40554d1221e3d2ff2e0d192b74a05d89eb3620e7; 6.19 · source: vendor
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-98941
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-98941
git.kernel.org
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/40554d1221e3d2ff2e0d192b74a05d89eb3620e7
More from Linux
9.8
CVE-2025-39682
tls: fix handling of zero-length records on the rx_list
8.8
CVE-2026-53266
netfilter: bridge: make ebt_snat ARP rewrite writable
7.8
CVE-2026-53362
ipv6: account for fraggap on the paged allocation path
7.8
CVE-2026-46300
net: skbuff: preserve shared-frag marker during coalescing
7.8
CVE-2026-31431
crypto: algif_aead - Revert to operating out-of-place
