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In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been...

Moderate severity Unreviewed Published Aug 22, 2024 to the GitHub Advisory Database • Updated Sep 12, 2024

Package

No package listedSuggest a package

Affected versions

Unknown

Patched versions

Unknown

Description

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

btrfs: get rid of warning on transaction commit when using flushoncommit

When using the flushoncommit mount option, during almost every transaction
commit we trigger a warning from __writeback_inodes_sb_nr():

$ cat fs/fs-writeback.c:
(...)
static void __writeback_inodes_sb_nr(struct super_block *sb, ...
{
(...)
WARN_ON(!rwsem_is_locked(&sb->s_umount));
(...)
}
(...)

The trace produced in dmesg looks like the following:

[947.473890] WARNING: CPU: 5 PID: 930 at fs/fs-writeback.c:2610 __writeback_inodes_sb_nr+0x7e/0xb3
[947.481623] Modules linked in: nfsd nls_cp437 cifs asn1_decoder cifs_arc4 fscache cifs_md4 ipmi_ssif
[947.489571] CPU: 5 PID: 930 Comm: btrfs-transacti Not tainted 95.16.3-srb-asrock-00001-g36437ad63879 #186
[947.497969] RIP: 0010:__writeback_inodes_sb_nr+0x7e/0xb3
[947.502097] Code: 24 10 4c 89 44 24 18 c6 (...)
[947.519760] RSP: 0018:ffffc90000777e10 EFLAGS: 00010246
[947.523818] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: 0000000000963300 RCX: 0000000000000000
[947.529765] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 000000000000fa51 RDI: ffffc90000777e50
[947.535740] RBP: ffff888101628a90 R08: ffff888100955800 R09: ffff888100956000
[947.541701] R10: 0000000000000002 R11: 0000000000000001 R12: ffff888100963488
[947.547645] R13: ffff888100963000 R14: ffff888112fb7200 R15: ffff888100963460
[947.553621] FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff88841fd40000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
[947.560537] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
[947.565122] CR2: 0000000008be50c4 CR3: 000000000220c000 CR4: 00000000001006e0
[947.571072] Call Trace:
[947.572354]
[947.573266] btrfs_commit_transaction+0x1f1/0x998
[947.576785] ? start_transaction+0x3ab/0x44e
[947.579867] ? schedule_timeout+0x8a/0xdd
[947.582716] transaction_kthread+0xe9/0x156
[947.585721] ? btrfs_cleanup_transaction.isra.0+0x407/0x407
[947.590104] kthread+0x131/0x139
[947.592168] ? set_kthread_struct+0x32/0x32
[947.595174] ret_from_fork+0x22/0x30
[947.597561]
[947.598553] ---[ end trace 644721052755541c ]---

This is because we started using writeback_inodes_sb() to flush delalloc
when committing a transaction (when using -o flushoncommit), in order to
avoid deadlocks with filesystem freeze operations. This change was made
by commit ce8ea7cc6eb313 ("btrfs: don't call btrfs_start_delalloc_roots
in flushoncommit"). After that change we started producing that warning,
and every now and then a user reports this since the warning happens too
often, it spams dmesg/syslog, and a user is unsure if this reflects any
problem that might compromise the filesystem's reliability.

We can not just lock the sb->s_umount semaphore before calling
writeback_inodes_sb(), because that would at least deadlock with
filesystem freezing, since at fs/super.c:freeze_super() sync_filesystem()
is called while we are holding that semaphore in write mode, and that can
trigger a transaction commit, resulting in a deadlock. It would also
trigger the same type of deadlock in the unmount path. Possibly, it could
also introduce some other locking dependencies that lockdep would report.

To fix this call try_to_writeback_inodes_sb() instead of
writeback_inodes_sb(), because that will try to read lock sb->s_umount
and then will only call writeback_inodes_sb() if it was able to lock it.
This is fine because the cases where it can't read lock sb->s_umount
are during a filesystem unmount or during a filesystem freeze - in those
cases sb->s_umount is write locked and sync_filesystem() is called, which
calls writeback_inodes_sb(). In other words, in all cases where we can't
take a read lock on sb->s_umount, writeback is already being triggered
elsewhere.

An alternative would be to call btrfs_start_delalloc_roots() with a
number of pages different from LONG_MAX, for example matching the number
of delalloc bytes we currently have, in
---truncated---

References

Published by the National Vulnerability Database Aug 22, 2024
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Aug 22, 2024
Last updated Sep 12, 2024

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS score

0.042%
(5th percentile)

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2022-48920

GHSA ID

GHSA-m65f-mmqm-4fq6

Source code

No known source code

Dependabot alerts are not supported on this advisory because it does not have a package from a supported ecosystem with an affected and fixed version.

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