In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: smb/client: fix stale page cache in insert/collapse range smb3_insert_range() and smb3_collapse_range() use truncate_pagecache_range() to invalidate the affected page …

Overview

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

smb/client: fix stale page cache in insert/collapse range

smb3_insert_range() and smb3_collapse_range() use truncate_pagecache_range() to invalidate the affected page cache. However, if off or old_eof is not page-aligned, the boundary pages are only partially zeroed and remain uptodate. As a result, the client may return stale data after a successful insert/collapse range operation.

For example, with 4K pages:

page 0          page 1          page 2
0------4K       4K------8K      8K------12K
   ^                                ^
off=2K                       old_eof=10K

Page 1 is removed from the page cache, while the boundary pages are only partially zeroed. After COPYCHUNK moves the data on the server, these cached pages may still return stale data.

This can be reproduced on a CIFS mount:

bash -c '
        FILE=/mnt/scratch/repro

        # Use a 6 KiB file so EOF is not page-aligned.
        dd if=/dev/urandom of=/tmp/src bs=1K count=6 status=none

        # Expected: a 4 KiB hole followed by the original data.
        rm -f /tmp/expected
        truncate -s 4K /tmp/expected
        cat /tmp/src >> /tmp/expected

        cp /tmp/src "$FILE"

        # Prime the page cache before moving data on the server.
        cat "$FILE" > /dev/null

        fallocate --insert-range -o 0 -l 4K "$FILE"

        if cmp -s /tmp/expected "$FILE"; then
                echo "readback: OK"
        else
                echo "readback: STALE DATA"
        fi
'

Fix this by writing back dirty data and discarding the page cache from the start of the page containing off to EOF before moving data on the server.

Remediation

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

Vendor advisories

• Red Hat VEX · Low · affected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 · no fix planned: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 · updated 2026-10-17 · vex