Bug 2466805 (CVE-2026-43068)

Summary: CVE-2026-43068 kernel: ext4: avoid allocate block from corrupted group in ext4_mb_find_by_goal()
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: low Docs Contact:
Priority: low    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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Doc Text:
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's ext4 filesystem. This vulnerability occurs when the system attempts to allocate blocks from a corrupted block group within the ext4 filesystem. An attacker with local access could potentially trigger this condition, leading to delayed block allocation failures and subsequent data loss. This issue can also result in a denial of service (DoS) due to the filesystem becoming corrupted and unable to perform write operations reliably.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-05-05 17:03:33 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ext4: avoid allocate block from corrupted group in ext4_mb_find_by_goal()

There's issue as follows:
...
EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p1): Delayed block allocation failed for inode 206 at logical offset 0 with max blocks 1 with error 117
EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p1): This should not happen!! Data will be lost

EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p1): Delayed block allocation failed for inode 206 at logical offset 0 with max blocks 1 with error 117
EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p1): This should not happen!! Data will be lost

EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p1): Delayed block allocation failed for inode 206 at logical offset 0 with max blocks 1 with error 117
EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p1): This should not happen!! Data will be lost

EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p1): Delayed block allocation failed for inode 206 at logical offset 0 with max blocks 1 with error 117
EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p1): This should not happen!! Data will be lost

EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p1): Delayed block allocation failed for inode 2243 at logical offset 0 with max blocks 1 with error 117
EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p1): This should not happen!! Data will be lost

EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p1): Delayed block allocation failed for inode 2239 at logical offset 0 with max blocks 1 with error 117
EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p1): This should not happen!! Data will be lost

EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p1): error count since last fsck: 1
EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p1): initial error at time 1765597433: ext4_mb_generate_buddy:760
EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p1): last error at time 1765597433: ext4_mb_generate_buddy:760
...

According to the log analysis, blocks are always requested from the
corrupted block group. This may happen as follows:
ext4_mb_find_by_goal
  ext4_mb_load_buddy
   ext4_mb_load_buddy_gfp
     ext4_mb_init_cache
      ext4_read_block_bitmap_nowait
      ext4_wait_block_bitmap
       ext4_validate_block_bitmap
        if (!grp || EXT4_MB_GRP_BBITMAP_CORRUPT(grp))
         return -EFSCORRUPTED; // There's no logs.
 if (err)
  return err;  // Will return error
ext4_lock_group(ac->ac_sb, group);
  if (unlikely(EXT4_MB_GRP_BBITMAP_CORRUPT(e4b->bd_info))) // Unreachable
   goto out;

After commit 9008a58e5dce ("ext4: make the bitmap read routines return
real error codes") merged, Commit 163a203ddb36 ("ext4: mark block group
as corrupt on block bitmap error") is no real solution for allocating
blocks from corrupted block groups. This is because if
'EXT4_MB_GRP_BBITMAP_CORRUPT(e4b->bd_info)' is true, then
'ext4_mb_load_buddy()' may return an error. This means that the block
allocation will fail.
Therefore, check block group if corrupted when ext4_mb_load_buddy()
returns error.