What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-46046: ext4: fix missing brelse() in ext4_xattr_inode_dec_ref_all()

• Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2026-05-27 · updated 2026-10-15

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ext4: fix missing brelse() in ext4_xattr_inode_dec_ref_all() The commit c8e008b60492 ("ext4: ignore xattrs past end") introduced a refcount leak in when block_csum is false. ext4_xattr_inode_dec_ref_all() calls ext4_get_inode_loc() to get iloc.bh, but never releases it with brelse().

Affected products

• Linux kernel: from 5.4.293 before 5.5; from 5.10.237 before 5.10.258; from 5.15.181 before 5.15.209; from 6.1.135 before 6.1.175; from 6.6.88 before 6.6.140; from 6.12.24 before 6.12.86 — fixed in 5.10.258, 5.15.209, 5.5, 6.1.175, 6.12.86, 6.14

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.10.258, 5.15.209, 5.5, 6.1.175. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/097227f1ffe1a85bc3c359f81c71e3d40e06e920
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/153ab2c52355fbebcae622db8e7b506492c73a29
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1bc1107a3a403a6d440673ed6666f7b07ef868a8
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1e6b0a69bf2c9c819255c7566e4355536d81d9cf
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/77d059519382bd66283e6a4e83ee186e87e7708f
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b706d00206a9e82362a9633efbd8b5775650169b
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/dd98a5603a212ea9c96c6982ccdbcc748fdb9a56
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f072906688933bf47fabbaf63560be03357c8298
• https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-019113.html
• https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-457936.html
• https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-784472.html

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