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Darrick J. Wong 7dfb218c82 xfs: fix exchange-range-to-eof file size exchange
Norbert Szetei posted a patch containing an incomplete description of a
bug in XFS_IOC_EXCHANGE_RANGE's TO_EOF flag.  The bug tricks
exchange-range into modifying a file so that it has shared blocks
starting beyond EOF, which is never allowed because files never have
written data beyond EOF, and you can only share written data blocks.
This is key to all the incorrect behavior that follows.

Eventually I got from Norbert a description of what's going wrong:

> Fair. Here it is with physical block numbers, 4k blocks. peer is the file
> that gets rewritten and file1 is the one that ends up with the flag
> cleared.
>
> Start, nothing shared:
>
>	peer size 4096   -> [100]
>	file1 size 12288 -> [200] [201] [202]
>	donor1 size 4096 -> [300]
>	donor2 size 4096 -> [400]
>
> 1. FICLONERANGE peer's block into file1's middle slot:
>
>	peer size 4096   -> [100]
>	file1 size 12288 -> [200] [100] [202] reflink flag set
>                             ^^^^^ both files own block 100
>
> 2. XFS_IOC_EXCHANGE_RANGE file1 against donor1, file1_offset 0,
> file2_offset 8192, length 0, TO_EOF. One block is exchanged, and the sizes
> are exchanged with it:
>
>	file1 size 4096   -> [200] [100] [300] reflink flag set
>                              ^^^^^^^^^^^ still owned, now past the size
>	donor1 size 12288 -> [202]
>
> file1 says it is one block long while it still owns three. Nothing was
> unmapped. file2_offset is block 2, so this exchange cannot clear a flag.
>
> 3. XFS_IOC_EXCHANGE_RANGE file1 against donor2, both offsets 0, length 4096.
> By i_disk_size this is two one-block files exchanging everything, so
> xmi_can_exchange_reflink_flags() agrees and the flag is cleared:
>
>	file1 size 4096   -> [400] [100] [300] reflink flag CLEARED
>	donor2 size 4096  -> [200]
>
> Block 100 is still shared with peer.
>
> 4. pwrite(file1, 4096, 4096), which is file1's second slot, block 100.
> xfs_is_cow_inode(file1) is false, so no CoW:
>
>	peer size 4096 -> [100] same block, new contents
>
> Block 100 is the only one that matters here. PoC below, it reads a file
> called peer in the current directory. The filesystem needs reflink and
> exchange-range, which mkfs.xfs 7.x turns on by default.

So yes, TO_EOF is screwing up the file size even if it's actually
exchanging the data block correctly.  The following is the intended
behavior of XFS_EXCHANGE_RANGE_TO_EOF, as described by its manpage:

"Ignore the length parameter.  All bytes in file1_fd from file1_offset
 to EOF are moved to file2_fd, and file2's size is set to
 (file2_offset+(file1_length-file1_offset)).  Meanwhile, all bytes in
 file2 from file2_offset to EOF are moved to file1 and file1's size is
 set to (file1_offset+(file2_length-file2_offset))."

In other words, if we only exchange a portion of the file data, then we
should only exchange the portion of the file size that relates to the
exchanged data.  Unfortunately, the code swaps the ondisk file size and
the incore file sizes, which is incorrect if the caller passes in a
nonzero offset.

Having confused the file sizes, the PoC uses a second exchange-range
call on what looks like a non-reflinked single-block file.  Because the
file size is set incorrectly, exchange-range thinks it's exchanging the
full contents of two files and clears the reflink flag on the broken
file.  That enables an extending write of the broken file to rewrite the
shared block that's just past EOF.  This has become known colloquially
as refluxfs.

Once the file sizes are set correctly, the second exchange-range no
longer thinks that it's doing a full-contents swap, so it won't clear
the reflink flag on either of its file arguments.

Norbert followed up to an earlier version of this patch with a second
complaint about us not handling the i_disk_size state correctly:

> The offsets are bounded against the incore i_size but subtracted from
> the ondisk i_disk_size, so a file that has not been written back gives
> xmi_isize1 = 0 + (0 - 12288).
>
> For instance, you can do:
>
> $ xfs_io -f -c "pwrite -q 0 4096" -c fsync file1
> $ xfs_io -f -c "pwrite -q 0 12288" \
>   -c "exchangerange -s 0 -d 12288 file1" dirty
> $ stat -c %s file1
> 0
> $ stat -c %i file1
> 131
> $ sudo xfs_io -r -c "bulkstat_single 131" . | grep bs_size
> bs_size = 18446744073709539328

That's wrong, and the new file size update logic depends on the ondisk
i_disk_size matching the incore i_size, so flush the pagecache as needed
to push it upwards.

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-xfs/1E196589-DEBE-40AC-AFEA-D420DAAB067F@doyensec.com/
Reported-by: Norbert Szetei <norbert@doyensec.com>
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org # v6.10
Fixes: 966ceafc7a ("xfs: create deferred log items for file mapping exchanges")
Signed-off-by: Darrick J. Wong <djwong@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Dave Chinner <dchinner@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Carlos Maiolino <cem@kernel.org>
History 2026-10-11 08:23:43 +02:00
arch arm64 fixes for -rc7 2026-10-09 23:32:55 +02:00
block block-7.3-20261002 2026-10-02 12:25:40 -07:00
certs treewide: fix indentation and whitespace in Kconfig files 2026-05-28 21:24:42 -07:00
crypto crypto: aes - Fix undesired override of some optimized AES modes 2026-09-30 08:38:06 -07:00
Documentation vfs-7.3-rc7.fixes 2026-10-09 23:37:44 +02:00
drivers - amd64_edac: Shorten the ErrorInformation field read from the MCA_SYND MSR to 2026-10-10 16:57:30 -07:00
fs xfs: fix exchange-range-to-eof file size exchange 2026-10-11 08:23:43 +02:00
include sound fixes for 7.3-rc7 2026-10-10 01:20:08 +02:00
init Random number generator fixes for Linux 7.3-rc6. 2026-10-02 11:28:45 -07:00
io_uring io_uring-7.3-20261002 2026-10-02 12:17:24 -07:00
ipc mm.git review status for master..mm-nonmm-stable 2026-08-23 08:07:11 -07:00
kernel dma-mapping fixes for Linux 7.3 2026-10-10 00:49:55 +02:00
lib lib/dim: add KUnit test for dim_calc_stats() 2026-10-02 07:52:31 +01:00
LICENSES LICENSES: Add modern form of the LGPL-2.1 tags to the usage guide section 2025-10-22 07:58:19 +02:00
mm mm: don't schedule deferred kernel page table freeing while booting 2026-10-06 16:44:18 -07:00
net vsock: Fix memory leak in vmci_transport_recv_dgram_cb() 2026-10-08 11:46:13 -07:00
rust rust: net: netlink: validate attribute length before casting to c_int 2026-09-29 12:28:03 +02:00
samples rust: samples: add missing newlines in rust_print_main 2026-09-01 02:20:22 +02:00
scripts hid-for-linus-2026092202 2026-09-22 10:30:17 -07:00
security KEYS changes for v7.3-rc7 2026-10-06 04:51:54 +02:00
sound ASoC: Fixes for v7.3 2026-10-08 10:49:55 +02:00
tools vfs-7.3-rc7.fixes 2026-10-09 23:37:44 +02:00
usr usr: Correct a spelling by changing a letter 2026-08-05 14:51:58 +02:00
virt KVM: WARN if vCPU creation is in-progress when locking all vCPUs 2026-09-26 00:49:49 -04:00
.clang-format drm/bridge: rename drm_for_each_bridge_in_chain_scoped() to drm_for_each_bridge_in_chain() 2026-07-14 17:55:51 +02:00
.clippy.toml rust: bump Clippy's MSRV and clean incompatible_msrv allows 2026-04-07 09:51:39 +02:00
.cocciconfig scripts: add Linux .cocciconfig for coccinelle 2016-07-22 12:13:39 +02:00
.editorconfig editorconfig: add rst extension 2026-01-26 19:07:09 -08:00
.get_maintainer.ignore .get_maintainer.ignore: add myself 2026-09-07 10:01:33 +02:00
.gitattributes .gitattributes: set diff driver for Rust source code files 2023-05-31 17:48:25 +02:00
.gitignore SPDX patches for 7.2-rc1 2026-06-22 12:06:22 -07:00
.mailmap 7 hotfixes. 4 are cc:stable. 2026-10-08 12:35:20 +02:00
.pylintrc docs: Move the python libraries to tools/lib/python 2025-11-18 09:22:40 -07:00
.rustfmt.toml rust: add .rustfmt.toml 2022-09-28 09:02:20 +02:00
COPYING COPYING: state that all contributions really are covered by this file 2020-02-10 13:32:20 -08:00
CREDITS Driver core fixes for 7.3-rc2 2026-09-05 11:59:05 -07:00
Kbuild checksyscalls: move instance functionality into generic code 2026-04-05 09:21:32 +02:00
Kconfig io_uring: Rename KConfig to Kconfig 2025-02-19 14:53:27 -07:00
MAINTAINERS Mark the ext4 data=journal feature as being deprecated and will be 2026-10-08 17:37:49 +02:00
Makefile Linux 7.3-rc6 2026-10-04 13:45:25 -07:00
README README: remove out of place emdashes 2026-07-15 10:51:29 -06:00

Linux kernel
============

The Linux kernel is the core of any Linux operating system. It manages hardware,
system resources, and provides the fundamental services for all other software.

Quick Start
-----------

* Report a bug: See Documentation/admin-guide/reporting-issues.rst
* Get the latest kernel: https://kernel.org
* Build the kernel: See Documentation/admin-guide/quickly-build-trimmed-linux.rst
* Join the community: https://lore.kernel.org/

Essential Documentation
-----------------------

All users should be familiar with:

* Building requirements: Documentation/process/changes.rst
* Code of Conduct: Documentation/process/code-of-conduct.rst
* License: See COPYING

Documentation can be built with make htmldocs or viewed online at:
https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/


Who Are You?
============

Find your role below:

* New Kernel Developer: Getting started with kernel development
* Academic Researcher: Studying kernel internals and architecture
* Security Expert: Hardening and vulnerability analysis
* Backport/Maintenance Engineer: Maintaining stable kernels
* System Administrator: Configuring and troubleshooting
* Maintainer: Leading subsystems and reviewing patches
* Hardware Vendor: Writing drivers for new hardware
* Distribution Maintainer: Packaging kernels for distros
* AI Coding Assistant: LLMs and AI-powered development tools


For Specific Users
==================

New Kernel Developer
--------------------

Welcome! Start your kernel development journey here:

* Getting Started: Documentation/process/development-process.rst
* Your First Patch: Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst
* Coding Style: Documentation/process/coding-style.rst
* Build System: Documentation/kbuild/index.rst
* Development Tools: Documentation/dev-tools/index.rst
* Kernel Hacking Guide: Documentation/kernel-hacking/hacking.rst
* Core APIs: Documentation/core-api/index.rst

Academic Researcher
-------------------

Explore the kernel's architecture and internals:

* Researcher Guidelines: Documentation/process/researcher-guidelines.rst
* Memory Management: Documentation/mm/index.rst
* Scheduler: Documentation/scheduler/index.rst
* Networking Stack: Documentation/networking/index.rst
* Filesystems: Documentation/filesystems/index.rst
* RCU (Read-Copy Update): Documentation/RCU/index.rst
* Locking Primitives: Documentation/locking/index.rst
* Power Management: Documentation/power/index.rst

Security Expert
---------------

Security documentation and hardening guides:

* Security Documentation: Documentation/security/index.rst
* LSM Development: Documentation/security/lsm-development.rst
* Self Protection: Documentation/security/self-protection.rst
* Reporting Vulnerabilities: Documentation/process/security-bugs.rst
* CVE Procedures: Documentation/process/cve.rst
* Embargoed Hardware Issues: Documentation/process/embargoed-hardware-issues.rst
* Security Features: Documentation/userspace-api/seccomp_filter.rst

Backport/Maintenance Engineer
-----------------------------

Maintain and stabilize kernel versions:

* Stable Kernel Rules: Documentation/process/stable-kernel-rules.rst
* Backporting Guide: Documentation/process/backporting.rst
* Applying Patches: Documentation/process/applying-patches.rst
* Subsystem Profile: Documentation/maintainer/maintainer-entry-profile.rst
* Git for Maintainers: Documentation/maintainer/configure-git.rst

System Administrator
--------------------

Configure, tune, and troubleshoot Linux systems:

* Admin Guide: Documentation/admin-guide/index.rst
* Kernel Parameters: Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst
* Sysctl Tuning: Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/index.rst
* Tracing/Debugging: Documentation/trace/index.rst
* Performance Security: Documentation/admin-guide/perf-security.rst
* Hardware Monitoring: Documentation/hwmon/index.rst

Maintainer
----------

Lead kernel subsystems and manage contributions:

* Maintainer Handbook: Documentation/maintainer/index.rst
* Pull Requests: Documentation/maintainer/pull-requests.rst
* Managing Patches: Documentation/maintainer/modifying-patches.rst
* Rebasing and Merging: Documentation/maintainer/rebasing-and-merging.rst
* Development Process: Documentation/process/maintainer-handbooks.rst
* Maintainer Entry Profile: Documentation/maintainer/maintainer-entry-profile.rst
* Git Configuration: Documentation/maintainer/configure-git.rst

Hardware Vendor
---------------

Write drivers and support new hardware:

* Driver API Guide: Documentation/driver-api/index.rst
* Driver Model: Documentation/driver-api/driver-model/driver.rst
* Device Drivers: Documentation/driver-api/infrastructure.rst
* Bus Types: Documentation/driver-api/driver-model/bus.rst
* Device Tree Bindings: Documentation/devicetree/bindings/
* Power Management: Documentation/driver-api/pm/index.rst
* DMA API: Documentation/core-api/dma-api.rst

Distribution Maintainer
-----------------------

Package and distribute the kernel:

* Stable Kernel Rules: Documentation/process/stable-kernel-rules.rst
* ABI Documentation: Documentation/ABI/README
* Kernel Configuration: Documentation/kbuild/kconfig.rst
* Module Signing: Documentation/admin-guide/module-signing.rst
* Kernel Parameters: Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst
* Tainted Kernels: Documentation/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.rst

AI Coding Assistant
-------------------

CRITICAL: If you are an LLM or AI-powered coding assistant, you MUST read and
follow the AI coding assistants documentation before contributing to the Linux
kernel:

* Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst

This documentation contains essential requirements about licensing, attribution,
and the Developer Certificate of Origin that all AI tools must comply with.


Communication and Support
=========================

* Mailing Lists: https://lore.kernel.org/
* IRC: #kernelnewbies on irc.oftc.net
* Bugzilla: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/
* MAINTAINERS file: Lists subsystem maintainers and mailing lists
* Email Clients: Documentation/process/email-clients.rst