CVE-2026-43158 PUBLISHED

xfs: fix freemap adjustments when adding xattrs to leaf blocks

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 01.05.2026 Published: 06.05.2026 Updated: 06.05.2026

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

xfs: fix freemap adjustments when adding xattrs to leaf blocks

xfs/592 and xfs/794 both trip this assertion in the leaf block freemap adjustment code after ~20 minutes of running on my test VMs:

ASSERT(ichdr->firstused >= ichdr->count * sizeof(xfs_attr_leaf_entry_t) + xfs_attr3_leaf_hdr_size(leaf));

Upon enabling quite a lot more debugging code, I narrowed this down to fsstress trying to set a local extended attribute with namelen=3 and valuelen=71. This results in an entry size of 80 bytes.

At the start of xfs_attr3_leaf_add_work, the freemap looks like this:

i 0 base 448 size 0 rhs 448 count 46 i 1 base 388 size 132 rhs 448 count 46 i 2 base 2120 size 4 rhs 448 count 46 firstused = 520

where "rhs" is the first byte past the end of the leaf entry array. This is inconsistent -- the entries array ends at byte 448, but freemap[1] says there's free space starting at byte 388!

By the end of the function, the freemap is in worse shape:

i 0 base 456 size 0 rhs 456 count 47 i 1 base 388 size 52 rhs 456 count 47 i 2 base 2120 size 4 rhs 456 count 47 firstused = 440

Important note: 388 is not aligned with the entries array element size of 8 bytes.

Based on the incorrect freemap, the name area starts at byte 440, which is below the end of the entries array! That's why the assertion triggers and the filesystem shuts down.

How did we end up here? First, recall from the previous patch that the freemap array in an xattr leaf block is not intended to be a comprehensive map of all free space in the leaf block. In other words, it's perfectly legal to have a leaf block with:

  • 376 bytes in use by the entries array
  • freemap[0] has [base = 376, size = 8]
  • freemap[1] has [base = 388, size = 1500]
  • the space between 376 and 388 is free, but the freemap stopped tracking that some time ago

If we add one xattr, the entries array grows to 384 bytes, and freemap[0] becomes [base = 384, size = 0]. So far, so good. But if we add a second xattr, the entries array grows to 392 bytes, and freemap[0] gets pushed up to [base = 392, size = 0]. This is bad, because freemap[1] hasn't been updated, and now the entries array and the free space claim the same space.

The fix here is to adjust all freemap entries so that none of them collide with the entries array. Note that this fix relies on commit 2a2b5932db6758 ("xfs: fix attr leaf header freemap.size underflow") and the previous patch that resets zero length freemap entries to have base = 0.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to d08976725355b9d54d8332fce223fa281cc304a5 (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to 6a8737afbccc340e718e0b22577312826390be8b (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to a396b3d73d51355e50acdb403ba9c4cae4c1174e (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to 38613c01f69e1e77e6b8acab1e8ac665d01c2f15 (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to ef42a8766ff3fdf51cf72fb36d0859c09d134478 (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to 43f3b18679615a93bd848afde3602ba160637a46 (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to 24ce71852f2cee6581e2cbebc15489ed52bf63b7 (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to 3eefc0c2b78444b64feeb3783c017d6adc3cd3ce (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 2.6.12 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 2.6.12 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 5.10.252 to 5.10.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 5.15.202 to 5.15.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.1.165 to 6.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.6.128 to 6.6.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.75 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.16 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.19.6 to 6.19.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.0 to * (incl.)

References