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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2026-45985 json

ext4: don't set EXT4_GET_BLOCKS_CONVERT when splitting before submitting I/O

published 2026-05-27 5 mo ago modified 2026-11-06 2 d ago also EUVD-2026-32270

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.1%
EPSS 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 2%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

ext4: don't set EXT4_GET_BLOCKS_CONVERT when splitting before submitting I/O

When allocating blocks during within-EOF DIO and writeback with dioread_nolock enabled, EXT4_GET_BLOCKS_PRE_IO was set to split an existing large unwritten extent. However, EXT4_GET_BLOCKS_CONVERT was set when calling ext4_split_convert_extents(), which may potentially result in stale data issues.

Assume we have an unwritten extent, and then DIO writes the second half.

[UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU] on-disk extent U: unwritten extent [UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU] extent status tree |<- ->| ----> dio write this range

First, ext4_iomap_alloc() call ext4_map_blocks() with EXT4_GET_BLOCKS_PRE_IO, EXT4_GET_BLOCKS_UNWRIT_EXT and EXT4_GET_BLOCKS_CREATE flags set. ext4_map_blocks() find this extent and call ext4_split_convert_extents() with EXT4_GET_BLOCKS_CONVERT and the above flags set.

Then, ext4_split_convert_extents() calls ext4_split_extent() with EXT4_EXT_MAY_ZEROOUT, EXT4_EXT_MARK_UNWRIT2 and EXT4_EXT_DATA_VALID2 flags set, and it calls ext4_split_extent_at() to split the second half with EXT4_EXT_DATA_VALID2, EXT4_EXT_MARK_UNWRIT1, EXT4_EXT_MAY_ZEROOUT and EXT4_EXT_MARK_UNWRIT2 flags set. However, ext4_split_extent_at() failed to insert extent since a temporary lack -ENOSPC. It zeroes out the first half but convert the entire on-disk extent to written since the EXT4_EXT_DATA_VALID2 flag set, but left the second half as unwritten in the extent status tree.

[0000000000SSSSSS] data S: stale data, 0: zeroed [WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW] on-disk extent W: written extent [WWWWWWWWWWUUUUUU] extent status tree

Finally, if the DIO failed to write data to the disk, the stale data in the second half will be exposed once the cached extent entry is gone.

Fix this issue by not passing EXT4_GET_BLOCKS_CONVERT when splitting an unwritten extent before submitting I/O, and make ext4_split_convert_extents() to zero out the entire extent range to zero for this case, and also mark the extent in the extent status tree for consistency.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 5.10.253, 5.15.203, 6.1.191, 6.6.130, 6.12.77, 6.18.17, 6.19.4, 7.0
  • linux Debian 13 6.12.85-1
  • linux Debian 14 6.19.6-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-45985

  • linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-186.196
  • linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-136.136
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1112.119
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1061.64
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1112.122
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1064.72
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1108.114
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1059.67

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-45985

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel-syms SLES 16.0, Linux Micro Extras 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.36.1
  • kernel-obs-build Linux Micro Extras 6.2 6.12.0-160000.36.1
  • kernel-rt Linux Micro 6.2 6.12.0-160000.36.1
  • kernel-64kb SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.36.1
  • kernel-source SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.36.1
  • kernel-default SLES 16.0, SLE High Availability Extension 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2 +1 more 6.12.0-160000.36.1
  • kernel-default-base SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.36.1.160000.2.17
  • kernel-azure SLES for SAP applications 16.0, SLES 16.0 6.12.0-160000.36.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:3594-1SUSE-SU-2026:22742-1SUSE-SU-2026:22769-1SUSE-SU-2026:22835-1SUSE-SU-2026:22812-1SUSE-SU-2026:2800-1

  • kernel-rt openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.36.1
  • dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.36.1
  • kernel-64kb openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.36.1
  • kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.36.1
  • kernel-azure openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.36.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.36.1
  • kernel-source openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.36.1
  • kernel-default openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.36.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:21388-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2026-45985 updated cvss 7.0

kernel: ext4: don't set EXT4_GET_BLOCKS_CONVERT when splitting before submitting I/O

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel
    affected: no fix available

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
2 d ago

Exploit prediction

0.12% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 2% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Technology feeds

References

Sources

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