Linux EXT4 FS development
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From: Aditya Prakash Srivastava <aditya.ansh182@gmail.com>
To: Theodore Ts'o <tytso@mit.edu>, Andreas Dilger <adilger.kernel@dilger.ca>
Cc: Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz>, Baokun Li <libaokun@linux.alibaba.com>,
	Ojaswin Mujoo <ojaswin@linux.ibm.com>,
	Ritesh Harjani <ritesh.list@gmail.com>,
	Zhang Yi <yi.zhang@huawei.com>,
	sashiko-reviews@lists.linux.dev, linux-ext4@vger.kernel.org,
	linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
	Aditya Prakash Srivastava <aditya.ansh182@gmail.com>,
	syzbot+0c89d865531d053abb2d@syzkaller.appspotmail.com
Subject: [PATCH v2] ext4: fix kernel BUG in ext4_write_inline_data_end
Date: Tue,  9 Jun 2026 04:17:03 +0000	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260609041704.1709-1-aditya.ansh182@gmail.com> (raw)

When the data=journal mount option is used, the ext4_journalled_write_end()
function incorrectly calls ext4_write_inline_data_end() without checking
if the EXT4_STATE_MAY_INLINE_DATA flag is still set on the inode.

If a previous attempt to convert the inline data to an extent failed (e.g.
due to ENOSPC), the EXT4_STATE_MAY_INLINE_DATA flag is cleared, but
the EXT4_INODE_INLINE_DATA flag remains set. In this scenario, the next
call to ext4_write_begin() will not prepare the inline data xattr for
writing, but ext4_journalled_write_end() will incorrectly attempt to write
to it, triggering a BUG_ON(pos + len > EXT4_I(inode)->i_inline_size) in
ext4_write_inline_data() since i_inline_size was not expanded.

Additionally, a concurrent ext4_page_mkwrite() can execute
ext4_convert_inline_data() between ext4_write_begin() and ext4_write_end()
since it only takes xattr_sem. This concurrent path converts the inline
data to an extent and clears both the EXT4_INODE_INLINE_DATA and
EXT4_STATE_MAY_INLINE_DATA flags. Since the block buffers were not
allocated in ext4_write_begin(), falling through to the block fallback path
causes a NULL pointer dereference because folio_buffers(folio) is NULL.

Fix this by ensuring that the write_end functions (including
ext4_write_end() and ext4_da_do_write_end()) safely return 0 to trigger
a VFS retry if they detect folio_buffers(folio) is NULL after falling
through from the inline data check. Returning 0 signals
generic_perform_write() to revert the write iterator and retry the
entire write operation, which will then properly allocate block buffers.

Reported-by: syzbot+0c89d865531d053abb2d@syzkaller.appspotmail.com
Closes: https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?extid=0c89d865531d053abb2d
Fixes: 3fdcfb668fd7 ("ext4: add journalled write support for inline data")
Signed-off-by: Aditya Prakash Srivastava <aditya.ansh182@gmail.com>
---
v2:
  - Address TOCTOU race condition (reported by Sashiko AI review):
    A concurrent ext4_page_mkwrite() can execute ext4_convert_inline_data()
    which takes xattr_sem and converts the inline data to extents, clearing
    both EXT4_INODE_INLINE_DATA and EXT4_STATE_MAY_INLINE_DATA flags between
    ext4_write_begin() and write_end().
  - Safely return 0 from write_end functions if folio_buffers(folio) is NULL
    to trigger a VFS retry. This prevents a NULL pointer dereference in
    ext4_journalled_zero_new_buffers() and ext4_walk_page_buffers().
  - Add check for ext4_write_end() and ext4_da_do_write_end().
 fs/ext4/inode.c | 19 +++++++++++++++++--
 1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/ext4/inode.c b/fs/ext4/inode.c
index c2c2d6ac7f3d..d6c934b2ae31 100644
--- a/fs/ext4/inode.c
+++ b/fs/ext4/inode.c
@@ -1455,6 +1455,13 @@ static int ext4_write_end(const struct kiocb *iocb,
 		return ext4_write_inline_data_end(inode, pos, len, copied,
 						  folio);
 
+	if (unlikely(!folio_buffers(folio))) {
+		folio_unlock(folio);
+		folio_put(folio);
+		ext4_journal_stop(handle);
+		return 0;
+	}
+
 	copied = block_write_end(pos, len, copied, folio);
 	/*
 	 * it's important to update i_size while still holding folio lock:
@@ -1560,10 +1567,18 @@ static int ext4_journalled_write_end(const struct kiocb *iocb,
 
 	BUG_ON(!ext4_handle_valid(handle));
 
-	if (ext4_has_inline_data(inode))
+	if (ext4_has_inline_data(inode) &&
+	    ext4_test_inode_state(inode, EXT4_STATE_MAY_INLINE_DATA))
 		return ext4_write_inline_data_end(inode, pos, len, copied,
 						  folio);
 
+	if (unlikely(!folio_buffers(folio))) {
+		folio_unlock(folio);
+		folio_put(folio);
+		ext4_journal_stop(handle);
+		return 0;
+	}
+
 	if (unlikely(copied < len) && !folio_test_uptodate(folio)) {
 		copied = 0;
 		ext4_journalled_zero_new_buffers(handle, inode, folio,
@@ -3231,7 +3246,7 @@ static int ext4_da_do_write_end(struct address_space *mapping,
 	if (unlikely(!folio_buffers(folio))) {
 		folio_unlock(folio);
 		folio_put(folio);
-		return -EIO;
+		return 0;
 	}
 	/*
 	 * block_write_end() will mark the inode as dirty with I_DIRTY_PAGES
-- 
2.47.3


                 reply	other threads:[~2026-06-09  4:17 UTC|newest]

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