Bug 2426024 (CVE-2022-50845)

Summary: CVE-2022-50845 kernel: ext4: fix inode leak in ext4_xattr_inode_create() on an error path
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
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OS: Linux   
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2025-12-30 13:02:53 UTC 
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ext4: fix inode leak in ext4_xattr_inode_create() on an error path

There is issue as follows when do setxattr with inject fault:

[localhost]# fsck.ext4  -fn  /dev/sda
e2fsck 1.46.6-rc1 (12-Sep-2022)
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Unattached zero-length inode 15.  Clear? no

Unattached inode 15
Connect to /lost+found? no

Pass 5: Checking group summary information

/dev/sda: ********** WARNING: Filesystem still has errors **********

/dev/sda: 15/655360 files (0.0% non-contiguous), 66755/2621440 blocks

This occurs in 'ext4_xattr_inode_create()'. If 'ext4_mark_inode_dirty()'
fails, dropping i_nlink of the inode is needed. Or will lead to inode leak.
Comment 1 Alexander B 2025-12-31 14:54:57 UTC 
Upstream advisory:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2025123021-CVE-2022-50845-367a@gregkh/T