ext4: fix slab-out-of-bounds in ext4_mb_find_good_group_avg_frag_lists()
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 2 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · NVD. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-787 and the CVSS impact.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ext4: fix slab-out-of-bounds in ext4_mb_find_good_group_avg_frag_lists() We can trigger a slab-out-of-bounds with the following commands: mkfs.ext4 -F /dev/$disk 10G mount /dev/$disk /tmp/test echo 2147483647 > /sys/fs/ext4/$disk/mb_group_prealloc echo test > /tmp/test/file && sync ================================================================== BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in ext4_mb_find_good_group_avg_frag_lists+0x8a/0x200 [ext4] Read of size 8 at addr ffff888121b9d0f0 by task kworker/u2:0/11 CPU: 0 PID: 11 Comm: kworker/u2:0 Tainted: GL 6.7.0-next-20240118 #521 Call Trace: dump_stack_lvl+0x2c/0x50 kasan_report+0xb6/0xf0 ext4_mb_find_good_group_avg_frag_lists+0x8a/0x200 [ext4] ext4_mb_regular_allocator+0x19e9/0x2370 [ext4] ext4_mb_new_blocks+0x88a/0x1370 [ext4] ext4_ext_map_blocks+0x14f7/0x2390 [ext4] ext4_map_blocks+0x569/0xea0 [ext4] ext4_do_writepages+0x10f6/0x1bc0 [ext4] [...] ================================================================== The flow of issue triggering is as follows: // Set s_mb_group_prealloc to 2147483647 via sysfs ext4_mb_new_blocks ext4_mb_normalize_request ext4_mb_normalize_group_request ac->ac_g_ex.fe_len = EXT4_SB(sb)->s_mb_group_prealloc ext4_mb_regular_allocator ext4_mb_choose_next_group ext4_mb_choose_next_group_best_avail mb_avg_fragment_size_order order = fls(len) - 2 = 29 ext4_mb_find_good_group_avg_frag_lists frag_list = &sbi->s_mb_avg_fragment_size[order] if (list_empty(frag_list)) // Trigger SOOB! At 4k block size, the length of the s_mb_avg_fragment_size list is 14, but an oversized s_mb_group_prealloc is set, causing slab-out-of-bounds to be triggered by an attempt to access an element at index 29. Add a new attr_id attr_clusters_in_group with values in the range [0, sbi->s_clusters_per_group] and declare mb_group_prealloc as that type to fix the issue. In addition avoid returning an order from mb_avg_fragment_size_order() greater than MB_NUM_ORDERS(sb) and reduce some useless loops.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 6.6.36, 6.9.7, 6.10
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
Not affected: 2 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2024-40955
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-53rx-4vfw-28rw
References
More Linux Kernel vulnerabilities
- TI-2025-26358 tls: fix handling of zero-length records on the rx_list KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2026-38352 netfilter: bridge: make ebt_snat ARP rewrite writable KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
- TI-2013-05264 The (1) get_user and (2) put_user API functions in the Linux kernel before 3.5.5 on the… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
- TI-2022-00125 Integer overflow in kernel KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
- TI-2013-01864 The perf_swevent_init function in kernel/events/core.c in the Linux kernel before 3.8.9… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
- TI-2021-05514 Heap Out-Of-Bounds Write in Netfilter IP6T_SO_SET_REPLACE KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.3
Sources
- CVE-2024-40955 · CVE Program
- CVE-2024-40955 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-53rx-4vfw-28rw · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2024-40955 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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