CVE-2026-45920
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ext4 Filesystem Dirty Clusters Counter Double Decrement
Publication date: 2026-05-27
Last updated on: 2026-05-27
Assigner: kernel.org
Description
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ext4: fix dirtyclusters double decrement on fs shutdown
fstests test generic/388 occasionally reproduces a warning in
ext4_put_super() associated with the dirty clusters count:
WARNING: CPU: 7 PID: 76064 at fs/ext4/super.c:1324 ext4_put_super+0x48c/0x590 [ext4]
Tracing the failure shows that the warning fires due to an
s_dirtyclusters_counter value of -1. IOW, this appears to be a
spurious decrement as opposed to some sort of leak. Further tracing
of the dirty cluster count deltas and an LLM scan of the resulting
output identified the cause as a double decrement in the error path
between ext4_mb_mark_diskspace_used() and the caller
ext4_mb_new_blocks().
First, note that generic/388 is a shutdown vs. fsstress test and so
produces a random set of operations and shutdown injections. In the
problematic case, the shutdown triggers an error return from the
ext4_handle_dirty_metadata() call(s) made from
ext4_mb_mark_context(). The changed value is non-zero at this point,
so ext4_mb_mark_diskspace_used() does not exit after the error
bubbles up from ext4_mb_mark_context(). Instead, the former
decrements both cluster counters and returns the error up to
ext4_mb_new_blocks(). The latter falls into the !ar->len out path
which decrements the dirty clusters counter a second time, creating
the inconsistency.
To avoid this problem and simplify ownership of the cluster
reservation in this codepath, lift the counter reduction to a single
place in the caller. This makes it more clear that
ext4_mb_new_blocks() is responsible for acquiring cluster
reservation (via ext4_claim_free_clusters()) in the !delalloc case
as well as releasing it, regardless of whether it ends up consumed
or returned due to failure.
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Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendor | Product | Version / Range |
|---|---|---|
| linux | kernel | * |
| linux | linux_kernel | * |
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
KEV
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-UNKNOWN |
Attack-Flow Graph
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