[PATCH 6.18 212/752] jfs: nlink overflow in jfs_rename

Sasha Levin
2026-02-28T17:51:08Z

From: Jori Koolstra <jkoolstra@xs4all.nl>

[ Upstream commit 9218dc26fd922b09858ecd3666ed57dfd8098da8 ]

If nlink is maximal for a directory (-1) and inside that directory you
perform a rename for some child directory (not moving from the parent),
then the nlink of the first directory is first incremented and later
decremented. Normally this is fine, but when nlink = -1 this causes a
wrap around to 0, and then drop_nlink issues a warning.

After applying the patch syzbot no longer issues any warnings. I also
ran some basic fs tests to look for any regressions.

Signed-off-by: Jori Koolstra <jkoolstra@xs4all.nl>
Reported-by: syzbot+9131ddfd7870623b719f@syzkaller.appspotmail.com
Closes: https://syzbot.org/bug?extid=9131ddfd7870623b719f
Signed-off-by: Dave Kleikamp <dave.kleikamp@oracle.com>
Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>
---
fs/jfs/namei.c | 6 ++++--
1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/jfs/namei.c b/fs/jfs/namei.c
index 65a218eba8faf..7879c049632b3 100644
--- a/fs/jfs/namei.c
+++ b/fs/jfs/namei.c
@@ -1228,7 +1228,7 @@ static int jfs_rename(struct mnt_idmap *idmap, struct inode *old_dir,
jfs_err("jfs_rename: dtInsert returned -EIO");
goto out_tx;
}
- if (S_ISDIR(old_ip->i_mode))
+ if (S_ISDIR(old_ip->i_mode) && old_dir != new_dir)
inc_nlink(new_dir);
}
/*
@@ -1244,7 +1244,9 @@ static int jfs_rename(struct mnt_idmap *idmap, struct inode *old_dir,
goto out_tx;
}
if (S_ISDIR(old_ip->i_mode)) {
- drop_nlink(old_dir);
+ if (new_ip || old_dir != new_dir)
+ drop_nlink(old_dir);
+
if (old_dir != new_dir) {
/*
* Change inode number of parent for moved directory
--
2.51.0