CVE-2026-45920

ext4: fix dirtyclusters double decrement on fs shutdown

published May 27, 2026

CVSS
—
EPSS
0%
Percentile
9.1
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ext4: fix dirtyclusters double decrement on fs shutdown

fstests test generic/388 occasionally reproduces a warning in

ext4_put_super() associated with the dirty clusters count:

WARNING: CPU: 7 PID: 76064 at fs/ext4/super.c:1324 ext4_put_super+0x48c/0x590 [ext4]

Tracing the failure shows that the warning fires due to an

s_dirtyclusters_counter value of -1. IOW, this appears to be a

spurious decrement as opposed to some sort of leak. Further tracing

of the dirty cluster count deltas and an LLM scan of the resulting

output identified the cause as a double decrement in the error path

between ext4_mb_mark_diskspace_used() and the caller

ext4_mb_new_blocks().

First, note that generic/388 is a shutdown vs. fsstress test and so

produces a random set of operations and shutdown injections. In the

problematic case, the shutdown triggers an error return from the

ext4_handle_dirty_metadata() call(s) made from

ext4_mb_mark_context(). The changed value is non-zero at this point,

so ext4_mb_mark_diskspace_used() does not exit after the error

bubbles up from ext4_mb_mark_context(). Instead, the former

decrements both cluster counters and returns the error up to

ext4_mb_new_blocks(). The latter falls into the !ar->len out path

which decrements the dirty clusters counter a second time, creating

the inconsistency.

To avoid this problem and simplify ownership of the cluster

reservation in this codepath, lift the counter reduction to a single

place in the caller. This makes it more clear that

ext4_mb_new_blocks() is responsible for acquiring cluster

reservation (via ext4_claim_free_clusters()) in the !delalloc case

as well as releasing it, regardless of whether it ends up consumed

or returned due to failure.

The record
Technical detail
CVSS
Not scored
CVSS v4.0
Not supplied
EPSS
0.00199 · 9.1th percentile
Published
2026-05-27T12:17Z
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 27 MAY 12:17Z
    ext4: fix dirtyclusters double decrement on fs shutdown
    cvelistv5