< Back

CVE-2026-80808

Updated on 04 Sep 2026

Severity

Awaiting Analysis

Details

Links
NISTCIRCLRHELUbuntu

Overview

About vulnerability

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ext4: stop retrying saturated xattr cache entries

ext4_xattr_block_set() retries when a cache entry selected for reuse has a saturated reference count after taking the buffer lock. The retry returns to the mbcache lookup without making that entry ineligible, so it can select the same unusable entry indefinitely. A task spinning there can hold the parent directory’s i_rwsem and leave concurrent rmdir callers blocked.

Normally a reusable entry has a reference count below EXT4_XATTR_REFCOUNT_MAX because the count and MBE_REUSABLE_B are updated under the same buffer lock. A corrupted filesystem can violate that invariant. The syzbot reproducer reports allocator and xattr corruption before triggering this retry loop.

Check the untrusted on-disk count before incrementing it, avoiding overflow, and clear MBE_REUSABLE_B when it is already saturated. The next lookup then skips the entry that was just proven unusable. This mirrors the normal transition at EXT4_XATTR_REFCOUNT_MAX; the release path marks the entry reusable again on the exact 1024-to-1023 transition.

Using the same QEMU harness and guest parameters, current unpatched Linux hung in 6 of 8 420-second trials with the do_rmdir signature; representative NMI backtraces caught the owner spinning in ext4_xattr_block_set(). The patched kernel completed 28 of 28 trials without a hung-task report; the final twelve trials exercised the reviewed overflow-safe form of the change. syzbot’s patch testing also completed without reproducing the hang.

Details

Affected product:
Debian 11 ELS
Affected packages:
linux @ 5.10.259

Fixes

KernelCare state

Live-patch status from KernelCare for each operating system.

Operating system Status Covered kernels
Debian 12 Released
43 kernels
  • 6.1.177-1
  • 6.1.180-1
  • 6.1.38-1
  • 6.1.38-2
  • 6.1.38-4
  • 6.1.52-1
  • 6.1.55-1
  • 6.1.64-1
  • 6.1.66-1
  • 6.1.69-1
  • 6.1.76-1
  • 6.1.27-1
  • 6.1.67-1
  • 6.1.85-1
  • 6.1.90-1
  • 6.1.94-1
  • 6.1.99-1
  • 6.1.106-3
  • 6.1.112-1
  • 6.1.115-1
  • 6.1.119-1
  • 6.1.123-1
  • 6.1.128-1
  • 6.1.124-1
  • 6.1.129-1
  • 6.1.133-1
  • 6.1.135-1
  • 6.1.137-1
  • 6.1.140-1
  • 6.1.139-1
  • 6.1.147-1
  • 6.1.148-1
  • 6.1.153-1
  • 6.1.158-1
  • 6.1.159-1
  • 6.1.162-1
  • 6.1.164-1
  • 6.1.170-1
  • 6.1.170-3
  • 6.1.172-1
  • 6.1.174-1
  • 6.1.170-2
  • 6.1.176-1
Oracle Linux 8 UEK 7 Planned —
Oracle Linux 9 UEK 7 Planned —