Bug 2468063 (CVE-2026-43288)

Summary: CVE-2026-43288 kernel: ext4: move ext4_percpu_param_init() before ext4_mb_init()
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: ---
Doc Text:
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's ext4 filesystem. A local user can trigger a system panic, leading to a Denial of Service (DoS), by mounting a specially crafted ext4 filesystem with specific quota and project options. This occurs because a per-CPU counter is accessed before it is properly initialized during the block bitmap validation process.
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-05-08 14:02:37 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ext4: move ext4_percpu_param_init() before ext4_mb_init()

When running `kvm-xfstests -c ext4/1k -C 1 generic/383` with the
`DOUBLE_CHECK` macro defined, the following panic is triggered:

==================================================================
EXT4-fs error (device vdc): ext4_validate_block_bitmap:423:
                        comm mount: bg 0: bad block bitmap checksum
BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ff110000fa2cc000
PGD 3e01067 P4D 3e02067 PUD 0
Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI
CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 2386 Comm: mount Tainted: G W
                        6.18.0-gba65a4e7120a-dirty #1152 PREEMPT(none)
RIP: 0010:percpu_counter_add_batch+0x13/0xa0
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 ext4_mark_group_bitmap_corrupted+0xcb/0xe0
 ext4_validate_block_bitmap+0x2a1/0x2f0
 ext4_read_block_bitmap+0x33/0x50
 mb_group_bb_bitmap_alloc+0x33/0x80
 ext4_mb_add_groupinfo+0x190/0x250
 ext4_mb_init_backend+0x87/0x290
 ext4_mb_init+0x456/0x640
 __ext4_fill_super+0x1072/0x1680
 ext4_fill_super+0xd3/0x280
 get_tree_bdev_flags+0x132/0x1d0
 vfs_get_tree+0x29/0xd0
 vfs_cmd_create+0x59/0xe0
 __do_sys_fsconfig+0x4f6/0x6b0
 do_syscall_64+0x50/0x1f0
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e
==================================================================

This issue can be reproduced using the following commands:
        mkfs.ext4 -F -q -b 1024 /dev/sda 5G
        tune2fs -O quota,project /dev/sda
        mount /dev/sda /tmp/test

With DOUBLE_CHECK defined, mb_group_bb_bitmap_alloc() reads
and validates the block bitmap. When the validation fails,
ext4_mark_group_bitmap_corrupted() attempts to update
sbi->s_freeclusters_counter. However, this percpu_counter has not been
initialized yet at this point, which leads to the panic described above.

Fix this by moving the execution of ext4_percpu_param_init() to occur
before ext4_mb_init(), ensuring the per-CPU counters are initialized
before they are used.