CVE-2022-49850

MEDIUM

Linux Kernel - Deadlock in nilfs_count_free_blocks() via Concurrent Metadata Corruption Handling

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: nilfs2: fix deadlock in nilfs_count_free_blocks() A semaphore deadlock can occur if nilfs_get_block() detects metadata corruption while locating data blocks and a superblock writeback occurs at the same time: task 1 task 2 ------ ------ * A file operation * nilfs_truncate() nilfs_get_block() down_read(rwsem A) <-- nilfs_bmap_lookup_contig() ... generic_shutdown_super() nilfs_put_super() * Prepare to write superblock * down_write(rwsem B) <-- nilfs_cleanup_super() * Detect b-tree corruption * nilfs_set_log_cursor() nilfs_bmap_convert_error() nilfs_count_free_blocks() __nilfs_error() down_read(rwsem A) <-- nilfs_set_error() down_write(rwsem B) <-- *** DEADLOCK *** Here, nilfs_get_block() readlocks rwsem A (= NILFS_MDT(dat_inode)->mi_sem) and then calls nilfs_bmap_lookup_contig(), but if it fails due to metadata corruption, __nilfs_error() is called from nilfs_bmap_convert_error() inside the lock section. Since __nilfs_error() calls nilfs_set_error() unless the filesystem is read-only and nilfs_set_error() attempts to writelock rwsem B (= nilfs->ns_sem) to write back superblock exclusively, hierarchical lock acquisition occurs in the order rwsem A -> rwsem B. Now, if another task starts updating the superblock, it may writelock rwsem B during the lock sequence above, and can deadlock trying to readlock rwsem A in nilfs_count_free_blocks(). However, there is actually no need to take rwsem A in nilfs_count_free_blocks() because it, within the lock section, only reads a single integer data on a shared struct with nilfs_sufile_get_ncleansegs(). This has been the case after commit aa474a220180 ("nilfs2: add local variable to cache the number of clean segments"), that is, even before this bug was introduced. So, this resolves the deadlock problem by just not taking the semaphore in nilfs_count_free_blocks().

Scores

CVSS v3 5.5
EPSS 0.0014
EPSS Percentile 3.3%
Attack Vector LOCAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CISA SSVC

Vulnrichment
Exploitation none
Automatable no
Technical Impact partial

Details

CWE
CWE-667
Status published
Products (27)
linux/Kernel 2.6.38 - 4.9.334linux
linux/Kernel 4.10.0 - 4.14.300linux
linux/Kernel 4.15.0 - 4.19.267linux
linux/Kernel 4.20.0 - 5.4.225linux
linux/Kernel 5.11.0 - 5.15.79linux
linux/Kernel 5.16.0 - 6.0.9linux
linux/Kernel 5.5.0 - 5.10.155linux
Linux/Linux < 2.6.38
Linux/Linux 2.6.38
Linux/Linux 4.14.300 - 4.14.*
... and 17 more
Published May 01, 2025
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026