High · published September 12, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ext2: Fix lost inode updates for IS_SYNC inodes
ext2_setsize() and ext2_xattr_set2() had a construct like:
if (IS_SYNC(inode)) {
sync_inode_metadata(inode, 1);
} else {
mark_inode_dirty(inode);
}
which leads to lost inode updates for IS_SYNC inodes because
sync_inode_metadata() does anything only if the inode is already dirty
and hence inode updates may be simply lost. Fix the problem by
unconditionally marking the inode dirty and *then* call
sync_inode_metadata().