High severity · published May 6, 2026
CVE-2026-43158
xfs: fix freemap adjustments when adding xattrs to leaf blocks
8.8
CVSS
0.5%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
xfs: fix freemap adjustments when adding xattrs to leaf blocks
xfs/592 and xfs/794 both trip this assertion in the leaf block freemap
adjustment code after ~20 minutes of running on my test VMs:
ASSERT(ichdr->firstused >= ichdr->count * sizeof(xfs_attr_leaf_entry_t)
+ xfs_attr3_leaf_hdr_size(leaf));
Upon enabling quite a lot more debugging code, I narrowed this down to
fsstress trying to set a local extended attribute with namelen=3 and
valuelen=71. This results in an entry size of 80 bytes.
At the start of xfs_attr3_leaf_add_work, the freemap looks like this:
i 0 base 448 size 0 rhs 448 count 46
i 1 base 388 size 132 rhs 448 count 46
i 2 base 2120 size 4 rhs 448 count 46
firstused = 520
where "rhs" is the first byte past the end of the leaf entry array.
This is inconsistent -- the entries array ends at byte 448, but
freemap[1] says there's free space starting at byte 388!
By the end of the function, the freemap is in worse shape:
i 0 base 456 size 0 rhs 456 count 47
i 1 base 388 size 52 rhs 456 count 47
i 2 base 2120 size 4 rhs 456 count 47
firstused = 440
Important note: 388 is not aligned with the entries array element size
of 8 bytes.
Based on the incorrect freemap, the name area starts at byte 440, which
is below the end of the entries array! That's why the assertion
triggers and the filesystem shuts down.
How did we end up here? First, recall from the previous patch that the
freemap array in an xattr leaf block is not intended to be a
comprehensive map of all free space in the leaf block. In other words,
it's perfectly legal to have a leaf block with:
* 376 bytes in use by the entries array
* freemap[0] has [base = 376, size = 8]
* freemap[1] has [base = 388, size = 1500]
* the space between 376 and 388 is free, but the freemap stopped
tracking that some time ago
If we add one xattr, the entries array grows to 384 bytes, and
freemap[0] becomes [base = 384, size = 0]. So far, so good. But if we
add a second xattr, the entries array grows to 392 bytes, and freemap[0]
gets pushed up to [base = 392, size = 0]. This is bad, because
freemap[1] hasn't been updated, and now the entries array and the free
space claim the same space.
The fix here is to adjust all freemap entries so that none of them
collide with the entries array. Note that this fix relies on commit
2a2b5932db6758 ("xfs: fix attr leaf header freemap.size underflow") and
the previous patch that resets zero length freemap entries to have
base = 0.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.5% · higher than 40% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
KE
Kernel · Linux
2.6.12.1 before 5.10.252; 5.11 before 5.15.202; 5.16 before 6.1.165; 6.2 before 6.6.128; 6.7 before 6.12.75; 6.13 before 6.18.16; +6 more · source: NVD
LI
Linux · Linux
1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 before d08976725355b9d54d8332fce223fa281cc304a5; 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 before 6a8737afbccc340e718e0b22577312826390be8b; 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 before a396b3d73d51355e50acdb403ba9c4cae4c1174e; 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 before 38613c01f69e1e77e6b8acab1e8ac665d01c2f15; 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 before ef42a8766ff3fdf51cf72fb36d0859c09d134478; 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 before 43f3b18679615a93bd848afde3602ba160637a46; +3 more · source: vendor
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-43158
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-43158
Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/24ce71852f2cee6581e2cbebc15489ed52bf63b7
Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/38613c01f69e1e77e6b8acab1e8ac665d01c2f15
Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3eefc0c2b78444b64feeb3783c017d6adc3cd3ce
Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/43f3b18679615a93bd848afde3602ba160637a46
Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6a8737afbccc340e718e0b22577312826390be8b
Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a396b3d73d51355e50acdb403ba9c4cae4c1174e
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