ext4: fix dirtyclusters double decrement on fs shutdown

Overview

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

ext4: fix dirtyclusters double decrement on fs shutdown

fstests test generic/388 occasionally reproduces a warning in ext4_put_super() associated with the dirty clusters count:

WARNING: CPU: 7 PID: 76064 at fs/ext4/super.c:1324 ext4_put_super+0x48c/0x590 [ext4]

Tracing the failure shows that the warning fires due to an s_dirtyclusters_counter value of -1. IOW, this appears to be a spurious decrement as opposed to some sort of leak. Further tracing of the dirty cluster count deltas and an LLM scan of the resulting output identified the cause as a double decrement in the error path between ext4_mb_mark_diskspace_used() and the caller ext4_mb_new_blocks().

First, note that generic/388 is a shutdown vs. fsstress test and so produces a random set of operations and shutdown injections. In the problematic case, the shutdown triggers an error return from the ext4_handle_dirty_metadata() call(s) made from ext4_mb_mark_context(). The changed value is non-zero at this point, so ext4_mb_mark_diskspace_used() does not exit after the error bubbles up from ext4_mb_mark_context(). Instead, the former decrements both cluster counters and returns the error up to ext4_mb_new_blocks(). The latter falls into the !ar->len out path which decrements the dirty clusters counter a second time, creating the inconsistency.

To avoid this problem and simplify ownership of the cluster reservation in this codepath, lift the counter reduction to a single place in the caller. This makes it more clear that ext4_mb_new_blocks() is responsible for acquiring cluster reservation (via ext4_claim_free_clusters()) in the !delalloc case as well as releasing it, regardless of whether it ends up consumed or returned due to failure.

Affected

• Linux >= 0087d9fb3f29f59e8d42c8b058376d80e5adde4c < 523d5a4df3c649fa305c89efb552ec62a1ce9d3d
• Linux >= 0087d9fb3f29f59e8d42c8b058376d80e5adde4c < ca408af08544d96769c93a3d81a7f63f61129e95
• Linux >= 0087d9fb3f29f59e8d42c8b058376d80e5adde4c < 55576fa14771d33994c29a9ae960e07bb3f56c20
• Linux >= 0087d9fb3f29f59e8d42c8b058376d80e5adde4c < dbc4e10619ed87a50e637b96f2e574df36a7a769
• Linux >= 0087d9fb3f29f59e8d42c8b058376d80e5adde4c < 61e372122b6d95aec940fdaea0a16f988f359897
• Linux >= 0087d9fb3f29f59e8d42c8b058376d80e5adde4c < 3924aea2c33df3864929c1acd178bfc29d8f005f
• Linux >= 0087d9fb3f29f59e8d42c8b058376d80e5adde4c < 81982a11406c5da6c6e2b188028e7056e16b7128
• Linux >= 0087d9fb3f29f59e8d42c8b058376d80e5adde4c < 94a8cea54cd935c54fa2fba70354757c0fc245e3
• Linux 2.6.29

Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.