CVE-2026-72353: ntfs: avoid stale runlist element dereference in fallocate

CVE-2026-72353: ntfs: avoid stale runlist element dereference in fallocate

[Greg Kroah-Hartman]

From: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@kernel.org>

Description
===========

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

ntfs: avoid stale runlist element dereference in fallocate

ntfs_attr_fallocate() allocates holes and delayed allocations inside
initialized size by looking up the current runlist element under
ni->runlist.lock. The returned struct runlist_element is only a borrowed
pointer into ni->runlist.rl. A writer can replace and free that array
after the read lock is dropped, so later reads of rl->lcn, rl->length and
rl->vcn can touch freed memory.

The buggy scenario involves two paths, with each column showing the order
within that path:

ntfs_attr_fallocate():
  1. Take ni->runlist.lock for read.
  2. Get rl from ntfs_attr_find_vcn_nolock().
  3. Drop ni->runlist.lock.
  4. Read rl->lcn, rl->length and rl->vcn.

mmap page_mkwrite:
  1. Enter ntfs_filemap_page_mkwrite().
  2. Reach __ntfs_write_iomap_begin() and ntfs_attr_map_cluster().
  3. Merge allocation state with ntfs_runlists_merge().
  4. Reallocate ni->runlist.rl in ntfs_rl_realloc(), freeing the old array.

Validation reproduced this kernel report:
BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in ntfs_attr_fallocate+0xbb8/0xd00

Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 dump_stack_lvl+0x66/0xa0
 print_report+0xce/0x630
 ? ntfs_attr_fallocate+0xbb8/0xd00
 ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5
 ? __virt_addr_valid+0x20d/0x410
 ? ntfs_attr_fallocate+0xbb8/0xd00
 kasan_report+0xe0/0x110
 ? ntfs_attr_fallocate+0xbb8/0xd00
 ntfs_attr_fallocate+0xbb8/0xd00
 ? lock_acquire+0x2b8/0x2f0
 ? __pfx_ntfs_attr_fallocate+0x10/0x10
 ? 0xffffffffc0000095
 ? down_write+0x10d/0x1e0
 ntfs_fallocate+0x5c9/0x1d00
 ? __pfx_ntfs_fallocate+0x10/0x10
 ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5
 ? lock_acquire+0x2b8/0x2f0
 ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5
 ? selinux_file_permission+0x3a7/0x510
 vfs_fallocate+0x29d/0xd30
 __x64_sys_fallocate+0xc7/0x150
 ? do_syscall_64+0x81/0x6a0
 do_syscall_64+0x115/0x6a0
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f

Allocated by task 410:
 kasan_save_stack+0x33/0x60
 kasan_save_track+0x14/0x30
 __kasan_kmalloc+0xaa/0xb0
 __kvmalloc_node_noprof+0x353/0x920
 ntfs_rl_realloc+0x3f/0x110
 ntfs_runlists_merge+0xaa3/0x3010
 ntfs_attr_map_cluster+0x4e5/0xf80
 ntfs_attr_fallocate+0x53f/0xd00
 ntfs_fallocate+0x5c9/0x1d00
 vfs_fallocate+0x29d/0xd30
 __x64_sys_fallocate+0xc7/0x150
 do_syscall_64+0x115/0x6a0
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f

Freed by task 424:
 kasan_save_stack+0x33/0x60
 kasan_save_track+0x14/0x30
 kasan_save_free_info+0x3b/0x60
 __kasan_slab_free+0x5f/0x80
 kfree+0x307/0x580
 ntfs_rl_realloc+0x6f/0x110
 ntfs_runlists_merge+0x7b1/0x3010
 ntfs_attr_map_cluster+0x4e5/0xf80
 __ntfs_write_iomap_begin+0x8cd/0x2280
 iomap_iter+0x6de/0x11e0
 iomap_page_mkwrite+0x391/0x650
 ntfs_filemap_page_mkwrite+0x1ac/0x400
 do_page_mkwrite+0x15c/0x280
 __handle_mm_fault+0xd6d/0x1ca0
 handle_mm_fault+0x19c/0x470
 do_user_addr_fault+0x23b/0x9c0
 exc_page_fault+0x5c/0xc0
 asm_exc_page_fault+0x26/0x30

Fix this by copying the needed runlist fields while the read lock is still
held and using only those scalar snapshots after unlocking.

After the snapshot, ntfs_attr_map_cluster() can also find that the range
is already mapped and return balloc=false. Only call ntfs_dio_zero_range()
when new clusters were allocated, matching the write iomap path and
preserving the zero-newly-allocated-holes behavior.

The Linux kernel CVE team has assigned CVE-2026-72353 to this issue.


Affected and fixed versions
===========================

	Issue introduced in 7.1 with commit 495e90fa334828d4119061e2726af51d0a0fb4ed and fixed in 7.1.5 with commit 3dd3e43f17cda174009a51fe668046ed7afef46a
	Issue introduced in 7.1 with commit 495e90fa334828d4119061e2726af51d0a0fb4ed and fixed in 7.2-rc3 with commit 88496c4ac5a6ade75619f4b1015706a8b924d50a

Please see https://www.kernel.org for a full list of currently supported
kernel versions by the kernel community.

Unaffected versions might change over time as fixes are backported to
older supported kernel versions.  The official CVE entry at
	https://cve.org/CVERecord/?id=CVE-2026-72353
will be updated if fixes are backported, please check that for the most
up to date information about this issue.


Affected files
==============

The file(s) affected by this issue are:
	fs/ntfs/attrib.c


Mitigation
==========

The Linux kernel CVE team recommends that you update to the latest
stable kernel version for this, and many other bugfixes.  Individual
changes are never tested alone, but rather are part of a larger kernel
release.  Cherry-picking individual commits is not recommended or
supported by the Linux kernel community at all.  If however, updating to
the latest release is impossible, the individual changes to resolve this
issue can be found at these commits:
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3dd3e43f17cda174009a51fe668046ed7afef46a
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/88496c4ac5a6ade75619f4b1015706a8b924d50a