linux-kernel - [PATCH 1/2] jbd2: ensure that all ongoing I/O complete before freeing blocks

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: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

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

Message-ID: <20250916093337.3161016-2-yi.zhang@huaweicloud.com>
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2025 17:33:36 +0800
From: Zhang Yi <yi.zhang@...weicloud.com>
To: linux-ext4@...r.kernel.org
Cc: linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	tytso@....edu,
	adilger.kernel@...ger.ca,
	jack@...e.cz,
	hsiangkao@...ux.alibaba.com,
	yi.zhang@...wei.com,
	yi.zhang@...weicloud.com,
	libaokun1@...wei.com,
	yukuai3@...wei.com,
	yangerkun@...wei.com
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] jbd2: ensure that all ongoing I/O complete before freeing blocks

From: Zhang Yi <yi.zhang@...wei.com>

When releasing file system metadata blocks in jbd2_journal_forget(), if
this buffer has not yet been checkpointed, it may have already been
written back, currently be in the process of being written back, or has
not yet written back. jbd2_journal_forget() calls
jbd2_journal_try_remove_checkpoint() to check the buffer's status and
add it to the current transaction if it has not been written back. This
buffer can only be reallocated after the transaction is committed.

jbd2_journal_try_remove_checkpoint() attempts to lock the buffer and
check its dirty status while holding the buffer lock. If the buffer has
already been written back, everything proceeds normally. However, there
are two issues. First, the function returns immediately if the buffer is
locked by the write-back process. It does not wait for the write-back to
complete. Consequently, until the current transaction is committed and
the block is reallocated, there is no guarantee that the I/O will
complete. This means that ongoing I/O could write stale metadata to the
newly allocated block, potentially corrupting data. Second, the function
unlocks the buffer as soon as it detects that the buffer is still dirty.
If a concurrent write-back occurs immediately after this unlocking and
before clear_buffer_dirty() is called in jbd2_journal_forget(), data
corruption can theoretically still occur.

Although these two issues are unlikely to occur in practice since the
undergoing metadata writeback I/O does not take this long to complete,
it's better to explicitly ensure that all ongoing I/O operations are
completed.

Fixes: 597599268e3b ("jbd2: discard dirty data when forgetting an un-journalled buffer")
Suggested-by: Jan Kara <jack@...e.cz>
Signed-off-by: Zhang Yi <yi.zhang@...wei.com>
---
 fs/jbd2/transaction.c | 13 +++++++++----
 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/jbd2/transaction.c b/fs/jbd2/transaction.c
index c7867139af69..3e510564de6e 100644
--- a/fs/jbd2/transaction.c
+++ b/fs/jbd2/transaction.c
@@ -1659,6 +1659,7 @@ int jbd2_journal_forget(handle_t *handle, struct buffer_head *bh)
 	int drop_reserve = 0;
 	int err = 0;
 	int was_modified = 0;
+	int wait_for_writeback = 0;

 	if (is_handle_aborted(handle))
 		return -EROFS;
@@ -1782,18 +1783,22 @@ int jbd2_journal_forget(handle_t *handle, struct buffer_head *bh)
 		}

 		/*
-		 * The buffer is still not written to disk, we should
-		 * attach this buffer to current transaction so that the
-		 * buffer can be checkpointed only after the current
-		 * transaction commits.
+		 * The buffer has not yet been written to disk. We should
+		 * either clear the buffer or ensure that the ongoing I/O
+		 * is completed, and attach this buffer to current
+		 * transaction so that the buffer can be checkpointed only
+		 * after the current transaction commits.
 		 */
 		clear_buffer_dirty(bh);
+		wait_for_writeback = 1;
 		__jbd2_journal_file_buffer(jh, transaction, BJ_Forget);
 		spin_unlock(&journal->j_list_lock);
 	}
 drop:
 	__brelse(bh);
 	spin_unlock(&jh->b_state_lock);
+	if (wait_for_writeback)
+		wait_on_buffer(bh);
 	jbd2_journal_put_journal_head(jh);
 	if (drop_reserve) {
 		/* no need to reserve log space for this block -bzzz */
-- 
2.46.1