syzkaller found a path where ext4_xattr_inode_update_ref() reads an EA inode refcount that is already <= 0 and then applies ref_change (often -1). That lets the refcount underflow and we proceed with a bogus value, triggering errors like: EXT4-fs error: EA inode ref underflow: ref_count=-1 ref_change=-1 EXT4-fs warning: ea_inode dec ref err=-117 Make the invariant explicit: if the current refcount is non-positive, treat this as on-disk corruption, emit ext4_error_inode(), and fail the operation with -EFSCORRUPTED instead of updating the refcount. Delete the WARN_ONCE() as negative refcounts are now impossible; keep error reporting in ext4_error_inode(). This prevents the underflow and the follow-on orphan/cleanup churn. Reported-by: syzbot+0be4f339a8218d2a5bb1@syzkaller.appspotmail.com Fixes: https://syzbot.org/bug?extid=0be4f339a8218d2a5bb1 Co-developed-by: Albin Babu Varghese Signed-off-by: Albin Babu Varghese Signed-off-by: Ahmet Eray Karadag --- v2: - Move underflow guard before the update - Add overflow guard for the opposite case - Use u64 type instead s64, since ext4_xattr_inode_update_ref() returns u64 and ext4_xattr_inode_set_ref() expects u64. --- fs/ext4/xattr.c | 15 ++++++++------- 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-) diff --git a/fs/ext4/xattr.c b/fs/ext4/xattr.c index 5a6fe1513fd2..a510693e04ac 100644 --- a/fs/ext4/xattr.c +++ b/fs/ext4/xattr.c @@ -1019,7 +1019,7 @@ static int ext4_xattr_inode_update_ref(handle_t *handle, struct inode *ea_inode, int ref_change) { struct ext4_iloc iloc; - s64 ref_count; + u64 ref_count; int ret; inode_lock_nested(ea_inode, I_MUTEX_XATTR); @@ -1029,13 +1029,17 @@ static int ext4_xattr_inode_update_ref(handle_t *handle, struct inode *ea_inode, goto out; ref_count = ext4_xattr_inode_get_ref(ea_inode); + if ((ref_count == 0 && ref_change < 0) || (ref_count == U64_MAX && ref_change > 0)) { + ext4_error_inode(ea_inode, __func__, __LINE__, 0, + "EA inode %lu ref wraparound: ref_count=%lld ref_change=%d", + ea_inode->i_ino, ref_count, ref_change); + ret = -EFSCORRUPTED; + goto out; + } ref_count += ref_change; ext4_xattr_inode_set_ref(ea_inode, ref_count); if (ref_change > 0) { - WARN_ONCE(ref_count <= 0, "EA inode %lu ref_count=%lld", - ea_inode->i_ino, ref_count); - if (ref_count == 1) { WARN_ONCE(ea_inode->i_nlink, "EA inode %lu i_nlink=%u", ea_inode->i_ino, ea_inode->i_nlink); @@ -1044,9 +1048,6 @@ static int ext4_xattr_inode_update_ref(handle_t *handle, struct inode *ea_inode, ext4_orphan_del(handle, ea_inode); } } else { - WARN_ONCE(ref_count < 0, "EA inode %lu ref_count=%lld", - ea_inode->i_ino, ref_count); - if (ref_count == 0) { WARN_ONCE(ea_inode->i_nlink != 1, "EA inode %lu i_nlink=%u", -- 2.34.1