linux-cve-announce - CVE-2022-50845: ext4: fix inode leak in ext4_xattr_inode

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite for Android: free password hash cracker in your pocket

[<prev] [next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Message-ID: <2025123021-CVE-2022-50845-367a@gregkh>
Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2025 13:13:31 +0100
From: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>
To: linux-cve-announce@...r.kernel.org
Cc: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...nel.org>
Subject: CVE-2022-50845: ext4: fix inode leak in ext4_xattr_inode_create() on an error path

From: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...nel.org>

Description
===========

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

ext4: fix inode leak in ext4_xattr_inode_create() on an error path

There is issue as follows when do setxattr with inject fault:

[localhost]# fsck.ext4  -fn  /dev/sda
e2fsck 1.46.6-rc1 (12-Sep-2022)
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Unattached zero-length inode 15.  Clear? no

Unattached inode 15
Connect to /lost+found? no

Pass 5: Checking group summary information

/dev/sda: ********** WARNING: Filesystem still has errors **********

/dev/sda: 15/655360 files (0.0% non-contiguous), 66755/2621440 blocks

This occurs in 'ext4_xattr_inode_create()'. If 'ext4_mark_inode_dirty()'
fails, dropping i_nlink of the inode is needed. Or will lead to inode leak.

The Linux kernel CVE team has assigned CVE-2022-50845 to this issue.


Affected and fixed versions
===========================

	Fixed in 4.14.303 with commit 0f709e08caffb41bbc9b38b9a4c1bd0769794007
	Fixed in 4.19.270 with commit eab94a46560f68d4bcd15222701ced479f84f427
	Fixed in 5.4.229 with commit 9ef603086c5b796fde1c7f22a17d0fc826ba54cb
	Fixed in 5.10.163 with commit 9882601ee689975c1c0076ee65bf222a2a35e535
	Fixed in 5.15.87 with commit 322cf639b0b7f137543072c55545adab782b3a25
	Fixed in 6.0.18 with commit fdaaf45786dc8c17a72901021772520fceb18f8c
	Fixed in 6.1.4 with commit 70e5b46beba64706430a87a6d516054225e8ac8a
	Fixed in 6.2 with commit e4db04f7d3dbbe16680e0ded27ea2a65b10f766a

Please see https://www.kernel.org for a full list of currently supported
kernel versions by the kernel community.

Unaffected versions might change over time as fixes are backported to
older supported kernel versions.  The official CVE entry at
	https://cve.org/CVERecord/?id=CVE-2022-50845
will be updated if fixes are backported, please check that for the most
up to date information about this issue.


Affected files
==============

The file(s) affected by this issue are:
	fs/ext4/xattr.c


Mitigation
==========

The Linux kernel CVE team recommends that you update to the latest
stable kernel version for this, and many other bugfixes.  Individual
changes are never tested alone, but rather are part of a larger kernel
release.  Cherry-picking individual commits is not recommended or
supported by the Linux kernel community at all.  If however, updating to
the latest release is impossible, the individual changes to resolve this
issue can be found at these commits:
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0f709e08caffb41bbc9b38b9a4c1bd0769794007
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/eab94a46560f68d4bcd15222701ced479f84f427
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9ef603086c5b796fde1c7f22a17d0fc826ba54cb
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9882601ee689975c1c0076ee65bf222a2a35e535
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/322cf639b0b7f137543072c55545adab782b3a25
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/fdaaf45786dc8c17a72901021772520fceb18f8c
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/70e5b46beba64706430a87a6d516054225e8ac8a
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e4db04f7d3dbbe16680e0ded27ea2a65b10f766a