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

xfs: close crash window in attr dabtree inactivation

When inactivating an inode with node-format extended attributes,
xfs_attr3_node_inactive() invalidates all child leaf/node blocks via
xfs_trans_binval(), but intentionally does not remove the corresponding
entries from their parent node blocks. The implicit assumption is that
xfs_attr_inactive() will truncate the entire attr fork to zero extents
afterwards, so log recovery will never reach the root node and follow
those stale pointers.

However, if a log shutdown occurs after the leaf/node block cancellations
commit but before the attr bmap truncation commits, this assumption
breaks. Recovery replays the attr bmap intact (the inode still has
attr fork extents), but suppresses replay of all cancelled leaf/node
blocks, maybe leaving them as stale data on disk. On the next mount,
xlog_recover_process_iunlinks() retries inactivation and attempts to
read the root node via the attr bmap. If the root node was not replayed,
reading the unreplayed root block triggers a metadata verification
failure immediately; if it was replayed, following its child pointers
to unreplayed child blocks triggers the same failure:

XFS (pmem0): Metadata corruption detected at
xfs_da3_node_read_verify+0x53/0x220, xfs_da3_node block 0x78
XFS (pmem0): Unmount and run xfs_repair
XFS (pmem0): First 128 bytes of corrupted metadata buffer:
00000000: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00000010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00000020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00000030: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00000040: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00000050: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00000060: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00000070: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
XFS (pmem0): metadata I/O error in "xfs_da_read_buf+0x104/0x190" at daddr 0x78 len 8 error 117

Fix this in two places:

In xfs_attr3_node_inactive(), after calling xfs_trans_binval() on a
child block, immediately remove the entry that references it from the
parent node in the same transaction. This eliminates the window where
the parent holds a pointer to a cancelled block. Once all children are
removed, the now-empty root node is converted to a leaf block within the
same transaction. This node-to-leaf conversion is necessary for crash
safety. If the system shutdown after the empty node is written to the
log but before the second-phase bmap truncation commits, log recovery
will attempt to verify the root block on disk. xfs_da3_node_verify()
does not permit a node block with count == 0; such a block will fail
verification and trigger a metadata corruption shutdown. on the other
hand, leaf blocks are allowed to have this transient state.

In xfs_attr_inactive(), split the attr fork truncation into two explicit
phases. First, truncate all extents beyond the root block (the child
extents whose parent references have already been removed above).
Second, invalidate the root block and truncate the attr bmap to zero in
a single transaction. The two operations in the second phase must be
atomic: as long as the attr bmap has any non-zero length, recovery can
follow it to the root block, so the root block invalidation must commit
together with the bmap-to-zero truncation.
Published: 2026-05-01
Score: 4.7 Medium
EPSS: < 1% Very Low
KEV: No
Impact: n/a
Action: n/a
AI Analysis

Impact

This vulnerability in the Linux kernel’s XFS filesystem can cause metadata corruption if a system shuts down after a log crash during inode attribute inactivation. The bug arises when child leaf or node blocks are invalidated but their parent node still holds a reference to them, and the attribute bmap is truncated only after the invalidation. If a crash occurs between these operations, recovery may replay stale pointers and trigger a verification failure, leading to an unmount and potential data loss. The weakness is a transaction ordering flaw that breaks crash‑safety guarantees and is characterized by CWE‑367.

Affected Systems

The vulnerability affects the Linux kernel’s XFS filesystem. All kernel releases that include the XFS attr inactivation logic prior to the fix commit for the bug are potentially vulnerable; no specific version ranges are enumerated in the advisory.

Risk and Exploitability

The CVSS score is 4.7, the EPSS score of 0.00024 (represented as <1%) indicates a very low exploitation probability, and the vulnerability is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog. Exploitation requires a crash scenario followed by system restart, so the attack surface is limited to environments where power loss or forced reboot can occur. Nevertheless, any accidental crash could trigger metadata corruption, leading to service disruption or data loss.

Generated by OpenCVE AI on May 7, 2026 at 19:51 UTC.

Remediation

No vendor fix or workaround currently provided.

OpenCVE Recommended Actions

  • Update the Linux kernel to a version that includes the XFS attr inactivation fix (commit c854e1c4eff3473b6d3a9ae74129ac5c48bc0b61 or later).
  • After upgrading, run xfs_repair on all existing XFS filesystems to detect and correct any corrupted metadata that may have accumulated during earlier crashes.
  • If unable to patch immediately, schedule maintenance to perform clean shutdowns and avoid abrupt power loss on systems using XFS until the patch is applied.

Generated by OpenCVE AI on May 7, 2026 at 19:51 UTC.

Tracking

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Advisories

No advisories yet.

History

Thu, 07 May 2026 18:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
CPEs cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:2.6.12:-:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:2.6.12:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:2.6.12:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:2.6.12:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:2.6.12:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0:rc6:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0:rc7:*:*:*:*:*:*
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 5.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'}

 cvssV3_1

{'score': 4.7, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'}

Sat, 02 May 2026 00:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Weaknesses CWE-367
References
Metrics threat_severity

None

 cvssV3_1

{'score': 5.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'}

threat_severity

Moderate

Fri, 01 May 2026 14:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: xfs: close crash window in attr dabtree inactivation When inactivating an inode with node-format extended attributes, xfs_attr3_node_inactive() invalidates all child leaf/node blocks via xfs_trans_binval(), but intentionally does not remove the corresponding entries from their parent node blocks. The implicit assumption is that xfs_attr_inactive() will truncate the entire attr fork to zero extents afterwards, so log recovery will never reach the root node and follow those stale pointers. However, if a log shutdown occurs after the leaf/node block cancellations commit but before the attr bmap truncation commits, this assumption breaks. Recovery replays the attr bmap intact (the inode still has attr fork extents), but suppresses replay of all cancelled leaf/node blocks, maybe leaving them as stale data on disk. On the next mount, xlog_recover_process_iunlinks() retries inactivation and attempts to read the root node via the attr bmap. If the root node was not replayed, reading the unreplayed root block triggers a metadata verification failure immediately; if it was replayed, following its child pointers to unreplayed child blocks triggers the same failure: XFS (pmem0): Metadata corruption detected at xfs_da3_node_read_verify+0x53/0x220, xfs_da3_node block 0x78 XFS (pmem0): Unmount and run xfs_repair XFS (pmem0): First 128 bytes of corrupted metadata buffer: 00000000: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 00000010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 00000020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 00000030: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 00000040: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 00000050: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 00000060: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 00000070: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ XFS (pmem0): metadata I/O error in "xfs_da_read_buf+0x104/0x190" at daddr 0x78 len 8 error 117 Fix this in two places: In xfs_attr3_node_inactive(), after calling xfs_trans_binval() on a child block, immediately remove the entry that references it from the parent node in the same transaction. This eliminates the window where the parent holds a pointer to a cancelled block. Once all children are removed, the now-empty root node is converted to a leaf block within the same transaction. This node-to-leaf conversion is necessary for crash safety. If the system shutdown after the empty node is written to the log but before the second-phase bmap truncation commits, log recovery will attempt to verify the root block on disk. xfs_da3_node_verify() does not permit a node block with count == 0; such a block will fail verification and trigger a metadata corruption shutdown. on the other hand, leaf blocks are allowed to have this transient state. In xfs_attr_inactive(), split the attr fork truncation into two explicit phases. First, truncate all extents beyond the root block (the child extents whose parent references have already been removed above). Second, invalidate the root block and truncate the attr bmap to zero in a single transaction. The two operations in the second phase must be atomic: as long as the attr bmap has any non-zero length, recovery can follow it to the root block, so the root block invalidation must commit together with the bmap-to-zero truncation.
Title xfs: close crash window in attr dabtree inactivation
First Time appeared Linux
Linux linux Kernel
CPEs cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Linux
Linux linux Kernel
References

Subscriptions

Linux Linux Kernel
cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: Linux

Published:

Updated: 2026-05-11T22:16:48.253Z

Reserved: 2026-05-01T14:12:55.980Z

Link: CVE-2026-43053

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Analyzed

Published: 2026-05-01T15:16:51.777

Modified: 2026-05-07T18:24:03.143

Link: CVE-2026-43053

cve-icon Redhat

Severity : Moderate

Publid Date: 2026-05-01T00:00:00Z

Links: CVE-2026-43053 - Bugzilla

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-05-07T20:00:12Z

Weaknesses