Re: [PATCH] hfsplus: Add a sanity check for catalog btree node size

Viacheslav Dubeyko
2026-04-15T22:33:06Z

On Wed, 2026-04-15 at 16:29 +0800, Edward Adam Davis wrote:
> Syzbot reported a uninit-value bug in [1], during the file system mounting
> process, specifically while loading the catalog, a corrupted node_size
> value of 1 caused the rec_off argument passed to hfs_bnode_read_u16()
> (within hfs_bnode_find()) to be excessively large. Consequently, the
> function failed to return a valid value to initialize the off variable,
> triggering the bug [1].
>
> To prevent similar issues, a check for the catalog btree node size has
> been added within the hfsplus_btree_open() function.
>
> [1]
> BUG: KMSAN: uninit-value in hfsplus_bnode_find+0x141c/0x1600 fs/hfsplus/bnode.c:584
> hfsplus_bnode_find+0x141c/0x1600 fs/hfsplus/bnode.c:584
> hfsplus_btree_open+0x169a/0x1e40 fs/hfsplus/btree.c:382
> hfsplus_fill_super+0x111f/0x2770 fs/hfsplus/super.c:553
> get_tree_bdev_flags+0x6e6/0x920 fs/super.c:1694
> get_tree_bdev+0x38/0x50 fs/super.c:1717
> hfsplus_get_tree+0x35/0x40 fs/hfsplus/super.c:709
> vfs_get_tree+0xb3/0x5d0 fs/super.c:1754
> fc_mount fs/namespace.c:1193 [inline]
>
> Fixes: 8ad2c6a36ac4 ("hfsplus: validate b-tree node 0 bitmap at mount time")
> Reported-by: syzbot+217eb327242d08197efb@syzkaller.appspotmail.com
> Closes: https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?extid=217eb327242d08197efb
> Signed-off-by: Edward Adam Davis <eadavis@qq.com>
> ---
> fs/hfsplus/btree.c | 5 +++++
> 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/fs/hfsplus/btree.c b/fs/hfsplus/btree.c
> index 761c74ccd653..61050ffe425e 100644
> --- a/fs/hfsplus/btree.c
> +++ b/fs/hfsplus/btree.c
> @@ -337,6 +337,11 @@ struct hfs_btree *hfs_btree_open(struct super_block *sb, u32 id)
> pr_err("invalid catalog btree flag\n");
> goto fail_page;
> }
> + if (tree->node_size < 2) {

Every node starts from BTree node descriptor: struct hfs_bnode_desc. So, the
size of node cannot be lesser than that. However, technical specification
declares that: "The node size (which is expressed in bytes) must be power of
two, from 512 through 32,768, inclusive.". So, we can add more smart check here.

And, maybe, it makes sense to check the node size value at the places of using
it. What do you think?

But we have this check of node_size in hfs_btree_open() [1]:

size = tree->node_size;
if (!is_power_of_2(size))
goto fail_page;

If node size is 1, for example, then this check should fail to execute the
hfs_btree_open(). How, finally, do we have node_size == 1 during the
hfs_bnode_find()? I don't quite follow.

Thanks,
Slava.

> + pr_err("invalid catalog btree node size %u\n",
> + tree->node_size);
> + goto fail_page;
> + }
>
> if (test_bit(HFSPLUS_SB_HFSX, &HFSPLUS_SB(sb)->flags) &&
> (head->key_type == HFSPLUS_KEY_BINARY))

[1] https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/v7.0/source/fs/hfsplus/btree.c#L232