In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ext4: fix out-of-bounds read in ext4_read_inline_dir() ext4_read_inline_dir() can read a dirent header past the end of its inline buffer, triggering a slab-out-of-boun…

Overview

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

ext4: fix out-of-bounds read in ext4_read_inline_dir()

ext4_read_inline_dir() can read a dirent header past the end of its inline buffer, triggering a slab-out-of-bounds read during getdents64():

BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in __ext4_check_dir_entry Read of size 2 at addr ffff88800f3dd23c by task exploit/148 ... __ext4_check_dir_entry ext4_read_inline_dir iterate_dir

The dirent payload lives in a buffer of exactly inline_size bytes:

dir_buf = kmalloc(inline_size, GFP_NOFS);

but iteration runs in a position space extra_offset bytes larger (extra_size = extra_offset + inline_size) so the synthetic "." and ".." land at their block-dir offsets. A dirent is formed at "dir_buf + pos - extra_offset", yet the ext4_check_dir_entry() length argument uses the larger extra_size. A position whose dirent header would extend past extra_size is therefore accepted, and the rescan loop's rec_len probe and ext4_check_dir_entry() dereference de->rec_len before the entry is rejected.

Reject a position whose minimum-size dirent header would not fit within extra_size before forming de, in both the rescan and main loops, and pass inline_size rather than extra_size to ext4_check_dir_entry() so the length check matches the physical buffer.

Remediation

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