The vulnerability in the ocfs2 filesystem stems from an integer truncation when recomputing the directory cookie position on 32‑bit Linux kernels. Because the code masks a 64‑bit value with a 32‑bit mask, the high bits of the position are silently cleared, causing the readdir routine to reset to the first 4 GiB block once a directory larger than that boundary is accessed. This results in the same directory entries being returned repeatedly, creating an infinite loop that directory operations to a halt.

Linux kernel 32‑bit deployments that use the ocfs2 filesystem are affected. Any machine mounting an ocfs2 volume with a directory size exceeding flaw. 64‑bit kernels are unaffected, and the issue does not apply to systems that never mount ocfs2 or that keep all directories below the 4‑GiB threshold.

The flaw is rated with a CVSS base score of 5.5, indicating moderate risk, and the vulnerability is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog, suggesting limited exploitation activity so far. The EPSS score is less than 1%, indicating a very low likelihood of exploitation. An attacker would need local access to a process that performs read directory operations on a heavy ocfs2 directory; the damage consists of a denial of service via high CPU consumption, with no privilege escalation or remote code execution risk.