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

netfs: Fix unbuffered write error handling

If all the subrequests in an unbuffered write stream fail, the subrequest
collector doesn't update the stream->transferred value and it retains its
initial LONG_MAX value. Unfortunately, if all active streams fail, then we
take the smallest value of { LONG_MAX, LONG_MAX, ... } as the value to set
in wreq->transferred - which is then returned from ->write_iter().

LONG_MAX was chosen as the initial value so that all the streams can be
quickly assessed by taking the smallest value of all stream->transferred -
but this only works if we've set any of them.

Fix this by adding a flag to indicate whether the value in
stream->transferred is valid and checking that when we integrate the
values. stream->transferred can then be initialised to zero.

This was found by running the generic/750 xfstest against cifs with
cache=none. It splices data to the target file. Once (if) it has used up
all the available scratch space, the writes start failing with ENOSPC.
This causes ->write_iter() to fail. However, it was returning
wreq->transferred, i.e. LONG_MAX, rather than an error (because it thought
the amount transferred was non-zero) and iter_file_splice_write() would
then try to clean up that amount of pipe bufferage - leading to an oops
when it overran. The kernel log showed:

CIFS: VFS: Send error in write = -28

followed by:

BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000008

with:

RIP: 0010:iter_file_splice_write+0x3a4/0x520
do_splice+0x197/0x4e0

or:

RIP: 0010:pipe_buf_release (include/linux/pipe_fs_i.h:282)
iter_file_splice_write (fs/splice.c:755)

Also put a warning check into splice to announce if ->write_iter() returned
that it had written more than it was asked to.
History

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 17:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfs: Fix unbuffered write error handling If all the subrequests in an unbuffered write stream fail, the subrequest collector doesn't update the stream->transferred value and it retains its initial LONG_MAX value. Unfortunately, if all active streams fail, then we take the smallest value of { LONG_MAX, LONG_MAX, ... } as the value to set in wreq->transferred - which is then returned from ->write_iter(). LONG_MAX was chosen as the initial value so that all the streams can be quickly assessed by taking the smallest value of all stream->transferred - but this only works if we've set any of them. Fix this by adding a flag to indicate whether the value in stream->transferred is valid and checking that when we integrate the values. stream->transferred can then be initialised to zero. This was found by running the generic/750 xfstest against cifs with cache=none. It splices data to the target file. Once (if) it has used up all the available scratch space, the writes start failing with ENOSPC. This causes ->write_iter() to fail. However, it was returning wreq->transferred, i.e. LONG_MAX, rather than an error (because it thought the amount transferred was non-zero) and iter_file_splice_write() would then try to clean up that amount of pipe bufferage - leading to an oops when it overran. The kernel log showed: CIFS: VFS: Send error in write = -28 followed by: BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000008 with: RIP: 0010:iter_file_splice_write+0x3a4/0x520 do_splice+0x197/0x4e0 or: RIP: 0010:pipe_buf_release (include/linux/pipe_fs_i.h:282) iter_file_splice_write (fs/splice.c:755) Also put a warning check into splice to announce if ->write_iter() returned that it had written more than it was asked to.
Title netfs: Fix unbuffered write error handling
References

cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: Linux

Published:

Updated: 2025-09-05T17:21:31.137Z

Reserved: 2025-04-16T07:20:57.117Z

Link: CVE-2025-39723

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2025-09-05T18:15:50.043

Modified: 2025-09-05T18:15:50.043

Link: CVE-2025-39723

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

No data.