2026-04-03 15:15:44
Linux
PUBLISHED
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
btrfs: log new dentries when logging parent dir of a conflicting inode
If we log the parent directory of a conflicting inode, we are not logging
the new dentries of the directory, so when we finish we have the parent
directorys inode marked as logged but we did not log its new dentries.
As a consequence if the parent directory is explicitly fsynced later and
it does not have any new changes since we logged it, the fsync is a no-op
and after a power failure the new dentries are missing.
Example scenario:
$ mkdir foo
$ sync
$rmdir foo
$ mkdir dir1
$ mkdir dir2
# A file with the same name and parent as the directory we just deleted
# and was persisted in a past transaction. So the deleted directorys
# inode is a conflicting inode of this new files inode.
$ touch foo
$ ln foo dir2/link
# The fsync on dir2 will log the parent directory (".") because the
# conflicting inode (deleted directory) does not exists anymore, but it
# it does not log its new dentries (dir1).
$ xfs_io -c "fsync" dir2
# This fsync on the parent directory is no-op, since the previous fsync
# logged it (but without logging its new dentries).
$ xfs_io -c "fsync" .