Re: [SECURITY] e2fsprogs v1.47.4 Vulnerabilities — Orphan File & Extent Handling

Theodore Tso
2026-04-03T18:35:42Z

On Fri, Apr 03, 2026 at 10:17:38AM -0600, Andreas Dilger wrote:
>
> I don't see how this exposes any kind of security vulnerability if it
> requires that the image be specially modified in the first place?
> At that point the "attacker" can directly modify the image in any way
> they want, regardless of how e2fsprogs behaves.

We can debate whther or not it is a security vulnerability, and if so,
whether it deserves a CVSS corresponding to a low, medium, or high
severity since that's what people who are worrying about FEDRAMP
compliance need to worry about in terms of time to mitigation.

The reason why it's of interest is because we tell people that if they
have a potentially untrustwothy file system image (say, they if they
pick up a USB stick that was thoughtfully dropped off in the parking
lot by the Chinese MSS or Russian KGB agent), they should run e2fsck
on said file system image before they try mounting it. Asking them to
run e2fsck on the image is only a little bit more likely to work than
telling them to just not pick up the USB stick, or DESTROY IT BY FIRE,
and so the reality is that 99% of all uesrs will just mount the file
system without running fsck --- at which point, when their system is
compromised, we call it a "problem exists between chair and keyboard"
situation.

I don't really care whether we call it a security bug, or a quality of
implementation bug, but that's because I'm not the person responsible
for FEDRAMP compliance at $WORK, and I'm not someone who hands out bug
bounties, or who is trying to keep score of how many security
vulnerabilities that I found in order to demonstrate real world impact
as part of an academic tenure-track evaluation. :-)

As far as I'm concerned, if e2fsck doesn't (a) detect a file system
corruption, or (b) doesn't fix it after a single e2fsck -y run, or
(c) crashes or results in running a malicious payload as a result of a
specially crafted payload, it's a bug, and bugs should get fixed.

Cheers,

- Ted