Bug 2466815 (CVE-2026-43067)

Summary: CVE-2026-43067 kernel: ext4: handle wraparound when searching for blocks for indirect mapped blocks
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
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Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in the ext4 filesystem within the Linux kernel. This vulnerability involves an issue where the system incorrectly handles block allocation for indirect mapped files, potentially allowing blocks to be allocated beyond their defined 32-bit limit. This could lead to data corruption or system instability.
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-05-05 17:03:59 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ext4: handle wraparound when searching for blocks for indirect mapped blocks

Commit 4865c768b563 ("ext4: always allocate blocks only from groups
inode can use") restricts what blocks will be allocated for indirect
block based files to block numbers that fit within 32-bit block
numbers.

However, when using a review bot running on the latest Gemini LLM to
check this commit when backporting into an LTS based kernel, it raised
this concern:

   If ac->ac_g_ex.fe_group is >= ngroups (for instance, if the goal
   group was populated via stream allocation from s_mb_last_groups),
   then start will be >= ngroups.

   Does this allow allocating blocks beyond the 32-bit limit for
   indirect block mapped files? The commit message mentions that
   ext4_mb_scan_groups_linear() takes care to not select unsupported
   groups. However, its loop uses group = *start, and the very first
   iteration will call ext4_mb_scan_group() with this unsupported
   group because next_linear_group() is only called at the end of the
   iteration.

After reviewing the code paths involved and considering the LLM
review, I determined that this can happen when there is a file system
where some files/directories are extent-mapped and others are
indirect-block mapped.  To address this, add a safety clamp in
ext4_mb_scan_groups().