Medium · published January 8, 2025
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
quota: flush quota_release_work upon quota writeback
One of the paths quota writeback is called from is:
freeze_super()
sync_filesystem()
ext4_sync_fs()
dquot_writeback_dquots()
Since we currently don't always flush the quota_release_work queue in
this path, we can end up with the following race:
1. dquot are added to releasing_dquots list during regular operations.
2. FS Freeze starts, however, this does not flush the quota_release_work queue.
3. Freeze completes.
4. Kernel eventually tries to flush the workqueue while FS is frozen which
hits a WARN_ON since transaction gets started during frozen state:
ext4_journal_check_start+0x28/0x110 [ext4] (unreliable)
__ext4_journal_start_sb+0x64/0x1c0 [ext4]
ext4_release_dquot+0x90/0x1d0 [ext4]
quota_release_workfn+0x43c/0x4d0
Which is the following line:
WARN_ON(sb->s_writers.frozen == SB_FREEZE_COMPLETE);
Which ultimately results in generic/390 failing due to dmesg
noise. This was detected on powerpc machine 15 cores.
To avoid this, make sure to flush the workqueue during
dquot_writeback_dquots() so we dont have any pending workitems after
freeze.
| Product | Versions | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| linux/linux_kernel | ≥ 4.19.295, < 4.20 | 4.20 |
| linux/linux_kernel | ≥ 5.4.257, < 5.4.287 | 5.4.287 |
| linux/linux_kernel | ≥ 5.10.195, < 5.10.231 | 5.10.231 |
| linux/linux_kernel | ≥ 5.15.132, < 5.15.174 | 5.15.174 |
| linux/linux_kernel | ≥ 6.1.53, < 6.1.120 | 6.1.120 |
| linux/linux_kernel | ≥ 6.4.16, < 6.5 | 6.5 |
| linux/linux_kernel | ≥ 6.5.3, < 6.6.64 | 6.6.64 |
| linux/linux_kernel | ≥ 6.7, < 6.12.4 | 6.12.4 |
| linux/linux_kernel | all versions | — |