CVE-2026-53017

Summary

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

f2fs: fix data loss caused by incorrect use of nat_entry flag

Data loss can occur when fsync is performed on a newly created file (before any checkpoint has been written) concurrently with a checkpoint operation. The scenario is as follows:

create & write & fsync 'file A' write checkpoint

  • f2fs_do_sync_file // inline inode
  • f2fs_write_inode // inode folio is dirty - f2fs_write_checkpoint - f2fs_flush_merged_writes - f2fs_sync_node_pages - f2fs_flush_nat_entries
  • f2fs_fsync_node_pages // no dirty node
  • f2fs_need_inode_block_update // return false SPO and lost 'file A'

f2fs_flush_nat_entries() sets the IS_CHECKPOINTED and HAS_LAST_FSYNC flags for the nat_entry, but this does not mean that the checkpoint has actually completed successfully. However, f2fs_need_inode_block_update() checks these flags and incorrectly assumes that the checkpoint has finished.

The root cause is that the semantics of IS_CHECKPOINTED and HAS_LAST_FSYNC are only guaranteed after the checkpoint write fully completes.

This patch modifies f2fs_need_inode_block_update() to acquire the sbi->node_write lock before reading the nat_entry flags, ensuring that once IS_CHECKPOINTED and HAS_LAST_FSYNC are observed to be set, the checkpoint operation has already completed.

Affected Software

VendorProductVersion RangeStatus
LinuxLinuxe05df3b115e7308afbca652769b54e4549fcc723 < 20cedb4d9f6b230d0ee469690b8f868f06a07c29affected
LinuxLinuxe05df3b115e7308afbca652769b54e4549fcc723 < 238e14eb7226f883b72caccd2d37bf5707df066baffected
LinuxLinux3.8affected
LinuxLinux0 < 3.8unaffected
LinuxLinux7.0.10 <= 7.0.*unaffected
LinuxLinux7.1 <= *unaffected

Weaknesses

References