CVE-2024-46701
kernel: libfs: fix infinite directory reads for offset dir
Severity
ModerateRed Hat Product Security
CVSS 3.1
Review impact separately from score.
Published · September 13, 2024
Updated · November 21, 2025
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
libfs: fix infinite directory reads for offset dir
After we switch tmpfs dir operations from simple_dir_operations to simple_offset_dir_operations, every rename happened will fill new dentry to dest dir's maple tree(&SHMEM_I(inode)->dir_offsets->mt) with a free key starting with octx->newx_offset, and then set newx_offset equals to free key + 1. This will lead to infinite readdir combine with rename happened at the same time, which fail generic/736 in xfstests(detail show as below).
- create 5000 files(1 2 3...) under one dir
- call readdir(man 3 readdir) once, and get one entry
- rename(entry, "TEMPFILE"), then rename("TEMPFILE", entry)
- loop 2~3, until readdir return nothing or we loop too many times(tmpfs break test with the second condition)
We choose the same logic what commit 9b378f6ad48cf ("btrfs: fix infinite directory reads") to fix it, record the last_index when we open dir, and do not emit the entry which index >= last_index. The file->private_data now used in offset dir can use directly to do this, and we also update the last_index when we llseek the dir file.
[brauner: only update last_index after seek when offset is zero like Jan suggested]
CVSS score applicability
The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.
Mitigation
No mitigation is specified in collected source.
CVSS / CWE
CVSS 3.1 · 5.5CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CWE-835 · Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition ('Infinite Loop')