Bug 2528610 (CVE-2026-80806) - CVE-2026-80806 kernel: ext4: don't enable DAX on new encrypted files
Summary: CVE-2026-80806 kernel: ext4: don't enable DAX on new encrypted files
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2026-80806
Product: Security Response
Classification: Other
Component: vulnerability
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Product Security DevOps Team
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2026-09-04 15:39 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2026-10-25 23:14 UTC (History)
17 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-09-04 15:39:38 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ext4: don't enable DAX on new encrypted files

Currently, when a new encrypted regular file is created, the call to
ext4_set_inode_flags(inode, init=true) in __ext4_new_inode() is made
before EXT4_INODE_ENCRYPT is set.  As a result, it can set S_DAX if the
filesystem is mounted with "-o dax=always".

EXT4_INODE_ENCRYPT then actually gets set a bit later in
__ext4_new_inode(), when it calls fscrypt_set_context() which calls
ext4_set_context().  ext4_set_context() sets EXT4_INODE_ENCRYPT and
calls ext4_set_inode_flags(inode, init=false) to set S_ENCRYPTED too.

This was intended to clear S_DAX as well.  However, this was broken by
commit 043546e46dc7 ("fs/ext4: Only change S_DAX on inode load").  This
causes data written to the file to bypass encryption, also causing
xfstests failures such as generic/548 (when "-o dax=always" is used).

Fix this by simplifying the flow by making __ext4_new_inode() set
EXT4_INODE_ENCRYPT earlier.  This makes it take effect in
ext4_set_inode_flags(inode, init=true), making S_DAX never be set.

Similarly, make EXT4_STATE_MAY_INLINE_DATA never be set in the first
place on new encrypted inodes.  Then it doesn't need to be cleared.

As a result of these simplifications, ext4_set_context() no longer needs
to change inode flags or state when 'handle != NULL'.  Remove that too.


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