CVE-2024-55641: xfs: unlock inodes when erroring out of xfs_trans_alloc_dir

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2025-01-11 · updated 2026-06-17

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: xfs: unlock inodes when erroring out of xfs_trans_alloc_dir Debugging a filesystem patch with generic/475 caused the system to hang after observing the following sequences in dmesg: XFS (dm-0): metadata I/O error in "xfs_imap_to_bp+0x61/0xe0 [xfs]" at daddr 0x491520 len 32 error 5 XFS (dm-0): metadata I/O error in "xfs_btree_read_buf_block+0xba/0x160 [xfs]" at daddr 0x3445608 len 8 error 5 XFS (dm-0): metadata I/O error in "xfs_imap_to_bp+0x61/0xe0 [xfs]" at daddr 0x138e1c0 len 32 error 5 XFS (dm-0): log I/O error -5 XFS (dm-0): Metadata I/O Error (0x1) detected at xfs_trans_read_buf_map+0x1ea/0x4b0 [xfs] (fs/xfs/xfs_trans_buf.c:311). Shutting down filesystem. XFS (dm-0): Please unmount the filesystem and rectify the problem(s) XFS (dm-0): Internal error dqp->q_ino.reserved < dqp->q_ino.count at line 869 of file fs/xfs/xfs_trans_dquot.c. Caller xfs_trans_dqresv+0x236/0x440 [xfs] XFS (dm-0): Corruption detected. Unmount and run xfs_repair XFS (dm-0): Unmounting Filesystem be6bcbcc-9921-4deb-8d16-7cc94e335fa7 The system is stuck in unmount trying to lock a couple of inodes so that they can be purged. The dquot corruption notice above is a clue to what happened -- a link() call tried to set up a transaction to link a child into a directory. Quota reservation for the transaction failed after IO errors shut down the filesystem, but then we forgot to unlock the inodes on our way out. Fix that.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 6.10 before 6.12.6; 6.13-rc1, 6.13-rc2 — fixed in 6.12.6

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 6.12.6. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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