Bug 2502573 (CVE-2026-64159)

Summary: CVE-2026-64159 kernel: netfs: Fix zeropoint update where i_size > remote_i_size
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
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Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's network file system (netfs) component. This vulnerability occurs when the local file size is larger than the size reported by the remote server, leading to an incorrect update of the 'zero point' (a file position used to optimize reads). An attacker could potentially exploit this to cause unexpected read errors, where the system expects zero-filled data but encounters an End-Of-File (EOF) prematurely.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-07-19 17:06:46 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

netfs: Fix zeropoint update where i_size > remote_i_size

Fix the update of the zero point[*] by netfs_release_folio() when there is
uncommitted data in the pagecache beyond the folio being released but the
on-server EOF is in this folio (ie. i_size > remote_i_size).  The update
needs to limit zero_point to remote_i_size, not i_size as i_size is a local
phenomenon reflecting updates made locally to the pagecache, not stuff
written to the server.  remote_i_size tracks the server's i_size.

[*] The zero point is the file position from which we can assume that the
    server will just return zeros, so we can avoid generating reads.

Note that netfs_invalidate_folio() probably doesn't need fixing as
zero_point should be updated by setattr after truncation or fallocate.

Found with:

    fsx -q -N 1000000 -p 10000 -o 128000 -l 600000 \
        /xfstest.test/junk --replay-ops=junk.fsxops

using the following as junk.fsxops:

    truncate 0x0 0x1bbae 0x82864
    write 0x3ef2e 0xf9c8 0x1bbae
    write 0x67e05 0xcb5a 0x4e8f6
    mapread 0x57781 0x85b6 0x7495f
    copy_range 0x5d3d 0x10329 0x54fac 0x7495f
    write 0x64710 0x1c2b 0x7495f
    mapread 0x64000 0x1000 0x7495f

on cifs with the default cache option.

It shows read-gaps on folio 0x64 failing with a short read (ie. it hits
EOF) if the FMODE_READ check is commented out in netfs_perform_write():

                if (//(file->f_mode & FMODE_READ) ||
                    netfs_is_cache_enabled(ctx)) {

and no fscache.  This was initially found with the generic/522 xfstest.