Bug 2536762 (CVE-2026-92499) - CVE-2026-92499 kernel: ext4: validate readdir offset before accessing dirent
Summary: CVE-2026-92499 kernel: ext4: validate readdir offset before accessing dirent
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2026-92499
Product: Security Response
Classification: Other
Component: vulnerability
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Product Security
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2026-09-17 19:27 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2026-10-20 11:19 UTC (History)
17 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-09-17 19:27:59 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ext4: validate readdir offset before accessing dirent

A corrupted directory can trigger the following KASAN report when
ext4_readdir() resumes from an invalid position:

  BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in __ext4_check_dir_entry+0x5ef/0x820
  Read of size 2 at addr ffff88810a646000 by task repro_linear/509

  Call Trace:
   <TASK>
   dump_stack_lvl+0x53/0x70
   print_report+0xd0/0x630
   kasan_report+0xce/0x100
   __ext4_check_dir_entry+0x5ef/0x820
   ext4_readdir+0xcde/0x2b70
   iterate_dir+0x1a1/0x520
   __x64_sys_getdents64+0x12b/0x220
   do_syscall_64+0xf9/0x540
   entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
   </TASK>

KASAN reports use-after-free because the out-of-bounds access lands in an
adjacent freed page. The directory buffer itself is still referenced.

ext4_dir_llseek() invalidates the directory cookie so that ext4_readdir()
rescans directory entries from the start of the block. The rescan checks
only the lower bound of rec_len before advancing. A corrupted rec_len can
therefore place the offset where the block has insufficient space for a
complete directory entry. The rescan itself may dereference that truncated
entry, or the main loop may pass it to __ext4_check_dir_entry(). The latter
reads de->rec_len before validating the range. For example:

  block offset  0                           4092  4096
                |---- de1.rec_len = 4092 -----|----|
                                               de2.inode
                                                    | de2.rec_len
                                                    ^ OOB, reported as UAF

de2 starts at offset 4092 in this 4 KiB block. Its four-byte inode fits in
the block, but its rec_len starts at offset 4096 and crosses the boundary.

The minimum safe length is inode-dependent. Encrypted and casefolded
directory entries need eight additional hash bytes, while a valid metadata
checksum tail is only 12 bytes.

Cache the metadata checksum feature state and derive the minimum directory
entry length from the on-disk format. Use it to bound both the rescan and
the offset passed to the main loop. Report an offset in a truncated block
tail and skip the remainder of the block, while continuing to accept an
offset exactly at the block boundary.


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