CVE-2026-45912 — ext4: don't cache extent during splitting extent

Affected: Linux

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ext4: don't cache extent during splitting extent

Caching extents during the splitting process is risky, as it may result in stale extents remaining in the status tree. Moreover, in most cases, the corresponding extent block entries are likely already cached before the split happens, making caching here not particularly useful.

Assume we have an unwritten extent, and then DIO writes the first half.

[UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU] on-disk extent U: unwritten extent [UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU] extent status tree |<- ->| ----> dio write this range

First, when ext4_split_extent_at() splits this extent, it truncates the existing extent and then inserts a new one. During this process, this extent status entry may be shrunk, and calls to ext4_find_extent() and ext4_cache_extents() may occur, which could potentially insert the truncated range as a hole into the extent status tree. After the split is completed, this hole is not replaced with the correct status.

[UUUUUUU|UUUUUUUU] on-disk extent U: unwritten extent [UUUUUUU|HHHHHHHH] extent status tree H: hole

Then, the outer calling functions will not correct this remaining hole extent either. Finally, if we perform a delayed buffer write on this latter part, it will re-insert the delayed extent and cause an error in space accounting.

In adition, if the unwritten extent cache is not shrunk during the splitting, ext4_cache_extents() also conflicts with e…

USN-8492-1 — linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-fips, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-fips, linux-ibm, linux-nvidia, linux-nvidia-6.8, linux-oracle, l…

Affected: Ubuntu:22.04:LTS: linux-nvidia-6.8, Ubuntu:Pro:Realtime:22.04:LTS: linux-realtime-6.8, Ubuntu:24.04:LTS: linux, Ubuntu:24.04:LTS: linux-aws, Ubuntu:24.04:LTS: linux-gcp, Ubuntu:24.04:LTS: linux-ibm, Ubuntu:24.04:LTS: linux-nvidia, Ubuntu:24.04:LTS: linux-oracle, Ubuntu:Pro:Realtime:24.04:LTS: linux-realtime, Ubuntu:Pro:FIPS-updates:24.04:LTS: linux-aws-fips and 1 more

Several security issues were discovered in the Linux kernel. An attacker could possibly use these to compromise the system. This update corrects flaws in the following subsystems: - ARM64 architecture; - MIPS architecture; - PowerPC architecture; - x86 architecture; - Block layer subsystem; - Cryptographic API; - ACPI drivers; - ATM drivers; - RNBD block device driver; - Ublk userspace block driver; - Bus devices; - Character device driver; - TPM device driver; - Clock framework and drivers; - Clocksource drivers; - CPU idle management framework; - Hardware crypto device drivers; - DMA engine subsystem; - EFI core; - GPIO subsystem; - GPU drivers; - HID subsystem; - Hardware monitoring drivers; - IIO subsystem; - InfiniBand drivers; - IOMMU subsystem; - Multiple devices driver; - Media drivers; - Multifunction device drivers; - Broadcom VK accelerator driver; - MOST (Media Oriented Systems Transport) drivers; - MTD block device drivers; - Ethernet bonding driver; - Network drivers; - Mellanox network drivers; - STMicroelectronics network drivers; - NTB driver; - NVME drivers; - PCI subsystem; - Performance monitor drivers; - Pin controllers subsystem; - x86 platform drivers; - Power supply drivers; - RapidIO drivers; - RAS (Reliability, Availability, Serviceability) subsystem; - Remote Processor subsystem; - RPMSG subsystem; - S/390 drivers; - SCSI subsystem; - MediaTek SoC dr…

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CVE-2026-45912 — ext4: don't cache extent during splitting extent

USN-8492-1 — linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-fips, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-fips, linux-ibm, linux-nvidia, linux-nvidia-6.8, linux-oracle, l…