CVE-2024-46744: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Squashfs: sanity check symbolic link size Syzkiller reports a "KMSAN: uninit-value in pick

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Squashfs: sanity check symbolic link size Syzkiller reports a "KMSAN: uninit-value in pick

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Squashfs: sanity check symbolic link size Syzkiller reports a "KMSAN: uninit-value in pick_link" bug. This is caused by an uninitialised page, which is ultimately caused by a corrupted symbolic link size read from disk. The reason why the corrupted symlink size causes an uninitialised page is due to the following sequence of events: 1. squashfs_read_inode() is called to read the symbolic link from disk. This assigns the corrupted value 3875536935 to inode->i_size. 2. Later squashfs_symlink_read_folio() is called, which assigns this corrupted value to the length variable, which being a signed int, overflows producing a negative number. 3. The following loop that fills in the page contents checks that the copied bytes is less than length, which being negative means the loop is skipped, producing an uninitialised page. This patch adds a sanity check which checks that the symbolic link size is not larger than expected. -- V2: fix spelling mistake.

Description from the National Vulnerability Database, published by 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

What it means for a small business

Linux is on the computers, phones or browsers your team uses every day. Turn on automatic updates and restart: most of these fixes only take effect after a restart.

How likely is an attack? The Exploit Prediction Scoring System, run by FIRST (the global association of security response teams), puts the odds of this one being exploited in the next 30 days at 0.30%, higher than 22% of CVEs. That’s low, but low isn’t zero, and the odds jump the day someone publishes an exploit. Scored October 28, 2026, updated daily.

Check your own setup

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Server check: what your web server says about itself, and whether that version has known flaws.

Sources

Part of the Huttenlocher Technologies vulnerability database, refreshed twice a day from CISA and the NVD. The title, category and plain-language guidance are ours; check the linked record before acting on a detail. This is general guidance, not a review of your systems.

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