Bug 2482100 (CVE-2026-45858)

Summary: CVE-2026-45858 kernel: ext4: don't zero the entire extent if EXT4_EXT_DATA_PARTIAL_VALID1
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
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Version: unspecifiedKeywords: Security
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OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's ext4 filesystem. This vulnerability occurs during the splitting of unwritten data blocks, where a portion of the data may be incorrectly marked as written while still containing stale, uninitialized information. A local attacker could potentially exploit this to access sensitive data that should have been zeroed out, leading to information disclosure.
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-05-27 15:11:19 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ext4: don't zero the entire extent if EXT4_EXT_DATA_PARTIAL_VALID1

When allocating initialized blocks from a large unwritten extent, or
when splitting an unwritten extent during end I/O and converting it to
initialized, there is currently a potential issue of stale data if the
extent needs to be split in the middle.

       0  A      B  N
       [UUUUUUUUUUUU]    U: unwritten extent
       [--DDDDDDDD--]    D: valid data
          |<-  ->| ----> this range needs to be initialized

ext4_split_extent() first try to split this extent at B with
EXT4_EXT_DATA_ENTIRE_VALID1 and EXT4_EXT_MAY_ZEROOUT flag set, but
ext4_split_extent_at() failed to split this extent due to temporary lack
of space. It zeroout B to N and mark the entire extent from 0 to N
as written.

       0  A      B  N
       [WWWWWWWWWWWW]    W: written extent
       [SSDDDDDDDDZZ]    Z: zeroed, S: stale data

ext4_split_extent() then try to split this extent at A with
EXT4_EXT_DATA_VALID2 flag set. This time, it split successfully and left
a stale written extent from 0 to A.

       0  A      B   N
       [WW|WWWWWWWWWW]
       [SS|DDDDDDDDZZ]

Fix this by pass EXT4_EXT_DATA_PARTIAL_VALID1 to ext4_split_extent_at()
when splitting at B, don't convert the entire extent to written and left
it as unwritten after zeroing out B to N. The remaining work is just
like the standard two-part split. ext4_split_extent() will pass the
EXT4_EXT_DATA_VALID2 flag when it calls ext4_split_extent_at() for the
second time, allowing it to properly handle the split. If the split is
successful, it will keep extent from 0 to A as unwritten.