Re: [PATCH] Fix: ext4: guard against EA inode refcount underflow in xattr update

["Darrick J. Wong" <djwong@kernel.org>]

On Thu, Sep 18, 2025 at 08:55:46PM +0300, Ahmet Eray Karadag wrote:
> syzkaller found a path where ext4_xattr_inode_update_ref() reads an EA
> inode refcount that is already <= 0 and then applies ref_change (often
> -1). That lets the refcount underflow and we proceed with a bogus value,
> triggering errors like:
> 
>   EXT4-fs error: EA inode <n> ref underflow: ref_count=-1 ref_change=-1
>   EXT4-fs warning: ea_inode dec ref err=-117
> 
> Make the invariant explicit: if the current refcount is non-positive,
> treat this as on-disk corruption, emit EXT4_ERROR_INODE(), and fail the
> operation with -EFSCORRUPTED instead of updating the refcount. Delete the
> WARN_ONCE() as negative refcounts are now impossible; keep error reporting
> in ext4_error_inode().
> 
> This prevents the underflow and the follow-on orphan/cleanup churn.
> 
> Fixes: https://syzbot.org/bug?extid=0be4f339a8218d2a5bb1
> Co-developed-by: Albin Babu Varghese <albinbabuvarghese20@gmail.com>
> Signed-off-by: Albin Babu Varghese <albinbabuvarghese20@gmail.com>
> Signed-off-by: Ahmet Eray Karadag <eraykrdg1@gmail.com>
> ---
>  fs/ext4/xattr.c | 10 +++++++---
>  1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/fs/ext4/xattr.c b/fs/ext4/xattr.c
> index 5a6fe1513fd2..a056f98579c3 100644
> --- a/fs/ext4/xattr.c
> +++ b/fs/ext4/xattr.c
> @@ -1030,6 +1030,13 @@ static int ext4_xattr_inode_update_ref(handle_t *handle, struct inode *ea_inode,
>  
>  	ref_count = ext4_xattr_inode_get_ref(ea_inode);
>  	ref_count += ref_change;
> +	if (ref_count < 0) {

Shouldn't this check ref_count >= ref_change *before* updating it?

--D

> +		ext4_error_inode(ea_inode, __func__, __LINE__, 0,
> +				"EA inode %lu ref underflow: ref_count=%lld ref_change=%d",
> +				ea_inode->i_ino, ref_count, ref_change);
> +		ret = -EFSCORRUPTED;
> +		goto out;
> +	}
>  	ext4_xattr_inode_set_ref(ea_inode, ref_count);
>  
>  	if (ref_change > 0) {
> @@ -1044,9 +1051,6 @@ static int ext4_xattr_inode_update_ref(handle_t *handle, struct inode *ea_inode,
>  			ext4_orphan_del(handle, ea_inode);
>  		}
>  	} else {
> -		WARN_ONCE(ref_count < 0, "EA inode %lu ref_count=%lld",
> -			  ea_inode->i_ino, ref_count);
> -
>  		if (ref_count == 0) {
>  			WARN_ONCE(ea_inode->i_nlink != 1,
>  				  "EA inode %lu i_nlink=%u",
> -- 
> 2.34.1
> 
>