CVE-2026-98446

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's XFS file system. When calculating space reservations for file system metadata, the kernel does not prevent an arithmetic underflow if the available reservable blocks drop below the amount already in use. A local user could exploit this condition during file operations to cause an excessively large subtraction of available space, resulting in file system corruption or a Denial of Service (DoS).

This vulnerability is rated as Moderate impact because triggering the arithmetic error requires local access with elevated privileges on an XFS volume, resulting exclusively in a denial of service. Exploitation cannot be achieved remotely, nor does it allow code execution or data leakage. Earlier Enterprise Linux distributions remain unaffected because the underlying metadata file reservation logic was introduced in later kernel releases.

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.